Pizza and I no longer get along. I mention this because I was told before meeting the anesthetist that I would need to fast for 10 hours. Last time I had pizza my blood sugars soared to the mid 20s. So with surgery so close and a threat from Dr. Miller my endochrinologist, threatened that if my surgars are above 8.3 no go. So here I was at work, my last meal before the fast and the only thing they are serving is pizza. I pick a small slice with lots of meat and skip the crust. So the rest of the night goes really good, except my team lose the hockey game, but all is good. Most of all I am not hungry which is really good.
This is supposed to be my last appointment before my surgery in 12 days. So I gather up my Dr. Amson bag and get it ready for my 9am morning appointment. For anyone who hasn't read my reports before, my Dr. Amson bag is designed for waiting in the doctor's office for hours on end. It contains a laptop, digital movies and tv shows, all my bloodwork for the past four years, all my weigh in's at Dr. Amson's office, my list of questions from each time I visit the doctor and my gameboy. So I am ready for hanging out at the RJH.
Parking sucks at the RJH. It has to be the worst hospital parking lot. But not a lot of options and Marla and I drive up to the top level. At least now there is a better short cut through the patient center and over to the check in. A little volunteer took us over to Clinic 1 and got us settled. In a few minutes we were checked in, all the paperwork was signed, and they me into a cubical to take 8 vials of blood for a Chem7 panel. http://surgery.about.com/od/beforesurgery/qt/BloodChemistry.htm
From there I met with the anesthetist - who was a really nice guy but I forgot his name as soon as he told me. I didn't even have time to write it down. We talked about my exercise plan and my daily diet. We talked about hockey. He told us a story about how when his dad was a doctor in Prince George that he would be paid for delivering a baby by receiving a bag of flour from the parents equal to the doctor's fee. Then we got back to talking about me. He told me that in my kind of cases, and likely all obesity cases, they are most concerned about getting tubes and such down the throat. The accomplish this by using a small camera to guide their way. Then we asked the big question which was "Why did I have trouble starting breathing after my last surgery?"
His response was to go to the records of my 2009 surgery and discovered that I didn't have trouble starting breathing just that I was not getting enough air. All they had to do was increase my oxygen for a bit longer. That wasn't what they told my wife back then and that was part of the reason she was freaking out over this operation. However, he did mention that they made many notes about the duration and volume of my snoring while I was in post surgical recovery.
He went on to talk about my fitness level. Because I walk and work out so much he said that I was in good shape and ready for the surgery. According to him I am a 'fit-fat guy', which is a good thing in my books.
So all I have to do now is not take my morning diabetes pills on the day of the operation, and come in ready for my surgery. And with that he sent me off for the next test. I liked it - I was sleepy still because I got up extra early to come in for my appointment and I didn't sleep so well anyways. So for the next test I got to lie on a bed while they did an ECG to check out my heart. I nearly fell asleep which they said was a good thing.
And then they sent me to Xray. I get Xrays every couple of years because of my early work in theater's filled with asbestos so this really wasn't any different. The cool part now was that the tech had some time to show me the Xray. So I got to look at my chest which is basically like a Halloween skeleton with a big cotton ball inside it. But it was cool except he wasn't able to give me a copy of the images for my facebook pictures.
Two and a half hours later we were done and it was time to go home. By now I was really hungry and Marla was even more famished so we took off to Denny's. Denny's has one of the worst meals I could have - a chicken fried steak sandwich - but I am saying good bye to meals that have done the damage to me. And it really wasn't that good.
Tonight I bumped into Dr. Amson at the hockey game and we had a chance to talk about getting ready for my surgery. It was really nice to get some encouragement from him and I got him to commit to going on the Times-Colonist 10k in May. He told me that he could see me losing about 80 pounds by the time the TC10K happens - I can't picture that but it is a nice vision.
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