Pre-surg consult, physical and pre-op clinic

What a day! Left the house at 10:30 for a 11:15 appointment with Dr. C (takes a 1/2 hour to drive there). Waited in his office for a half hour, then was sent back with this very nice lady who did more x-rays, the kind where you have to stand still, bite on a thing while this machine twirls around you. Then I had an x-ray that involved placing these pointy things in my ears, which was uncomfortable. I got to see my entire skull on an x-ray...that was cool.

After x-rays, the same very nice lady did some molds on me. The important molds my OS will use to practice on (Dr. C said "I have to work on stone before I work on bone.") It wasn't bad at all, though when she took the mold out, they made this suctiony noise and I was sure my braces would come out with them. They didn't. I even joked about that happening with the lady and she laughed and said it hasn't happened yet. Note: it isn't easy to remove plaster from your braces wires. The lady also made me bite into a piece of warm wax, and that was it. Oh, and she said I was SO easy to work with. I guess some people gag, projectile vomit or smack her around when they get molds done?

Then Dr. C came in to talk to me. He stuck a tongue depressor between my teeth and looked at my bite. He explained the surgery a little more. I'm having a lefort 1 + BSSO. My surgery will take approx. 2 hours. He's going to shorten my face for me, isn't that nice? I won't even need a splint! I'll have rigid fixation. Woo hoo! He said that afterwards, when people see me from a distance, they may not recognize me. He said I won't even recognize me. I said I'm quite excited about that aspect. He said my pain was likely caused from my posturing and from straining to close my lips over my teeth. I signed a consent form giving him permission to do the surgery, and that was that.

Next, I had to see a doctor who had admitting privledges at the hospital, some woman I've never seen or met before. I had to wait 30-40 mins to get into see her, which wasn't good because my appointment was at 2:00 and I had to be at the hospital at 2:45 for pre-admission. Anyway, she asked me a whole bunch of questions about my history and medications and why I was having the surgery, and then she examined me. She weighed me (117 pounds--I lost 5 pounds in the past couple of months, somehow), she took my blood pressure (excellent), listened to my heart and lungs (heart is beating, lungs are lunging), poked at my stomach and abdomen (they're both still in there), and that was that. Off to the hospital for the pre-surgery clinic.

So I get to the hospital at around 3:00 and register. The receptionist told me to get my butt down to bloodwork because they close at 3. Wonderful. I get down there, a woman tells me they're closed, I say please, my doctor appointment ran late, I need to get this done today. While I was begging, a man came up behind me, looked at the woman I was talking to and said "NO! We can't! We're closed!". I glanced at him and he winked at me and said "I'm just giving them a hard time" under his breath. He said he'd take my blood, no problem. It was just a simple CBC. He was extremely nice. While he was tying me off and getting the needle ready, he asked me when my birthday was and when I told him, he started talking about astrological signs. I guess to get my mind off the needle. Little did he know I don't mind needles at all. I'm such a good patient! Haha.

THEN I had to go finish registering, and then go down to the pre-surg clinic, where I had to speak to a nurse in the OR wing. I was also supposed to see a dietician but I was running so late, she left for the day. Oh well. The nurse, who had a cute Newfie accent, asked me a bazillion more questions. She took my temp and checked my vitals. My heartrate was 100, which is high. But that's normal for me. She told me what to expect in the hospital, what they would feed me, what would be in my IV, etc. She told me it was sometimes easier to drink out of a sippy cup, the old kind with no spill-proof valve. I thought that was a good idea. So on the weekend I'll go to Wal-Mart and buy a sippy cup and baby toothbrush for myself. And I'll be dribbling and drooling. It's like reverting back to babyhood. Hopefully I won't need diapers too. Hell, if I drink the amount of prune juice and eat the amount of bran they want me to ingest after the surgery, I very well might.

I got home at 5, exhausted from rushing around and waiting in waiting rooms. Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm so excited to get this over with.