Pre-Op Appointments

I had two pre-op appointments this week. Yesterday was with the doctor that will be heading up the surgery (my doctor is assisting) and today was with the hospital admissions folks.

With the doctor yesterday we went over health history, any questions that I had, how the surgery will go, expected recovery and potential risks. Exactly what I expected.

Health History: Luckily, myself and my family are overall pretty healthy folks. Nothing major going on so the health history questionnaire went quickly.

Surgery: She said that the hospital staff, herself and anyone else that comes into contact with me next Thursday will ask me what they are doing in surgery. They do this to make sure that I get done what I am supposed to get done - no more, no less. They also want to make sure that I completely understand what's about to happen. She had me repeat at least 4 times what they will be doing. "Complete vaginal hysterectomy with removal of both ovaries, uterus and cervix. Vaginal wall prolapse repair using tendons from uterus that is being removed along with rectocele repair. All surgery will take place vaginally with the understanding that they will go in through the abdomen if needed to complete the surgery." The doctor also said that she wants me, because of the rectocele repair, to do a bowel prep. She apologized profusely and told me that cursing her and hating her is to be expected. I will be taking something that will clean me out completely from gut to butt. Ha! That rhymed.

Recovery: I will come out of surgery, go to recovery room, once I'm awake enough to be moved, I will be returned to my hospital room. I will spend one night, with vaginal packing and a catheter. The next morning the packing will be removed along with the catheter and as soon as I can urinate I can go home. Once home I am restricted to lifting no more than 10 pounds (a gallon of milk weighs 8 pounds), rest as much as I feel necessary, pain meds as I feel necessary and as many small walks as I can tolerate. No pulling or pushing. No driving while on narcotic pain medication (duh!) or two weeks post-op. They say that recovery really differs from person to person because no two surgeries/persons are the same. She then said no intercourse for 4-6 weeks, at this I laughed and in my best sarcastic voice said, "really? you mean I can't rush home and bang one out?" I KNOW they have to say things like that but it floors me that they HAVE to. 6-8 weeks for full recovery is expected then my body adjusting and getting my hormones that I will have to take figured out after that. I have a post-op appointment on the 30th of this month also.

Risks: There are always risks with any surgery or medical procedure. She did touch on a few other risks. Like she said, they will be down there with sharp instruments removing, moving and repairing.
****
Today's appointment was at the hospital (SW Washington). They ran through many of the same things that my doctor did but not before I repeated to them exactly what the surgery was going to entail. I didn't quite get it right the first time through (I hadn't had my coffee yet!) so she asked a couple of questions then made me say it again. I was starting to catch on to why my doctor had me practice saying it. They too did a health history questionnaire, I had to disclose any and all medications, vitamins, herbal supplements, over the counter medications like Tylenol or Advil and street drugs that I've been taking or have taken in the last month. She then went through how the day will go next Thursday and what we should expect. She checked all of my personal information and made notes that Joel will be there with me, etc. They then took a urine sample and blood sample to run a gamut of tests. One of the tests they run, and I understand why they do, is a pregnancy test. This made me chuckle and she explained that the doctor doesn't want any surprises. I said, yeah, yeah I completely understand but if I got pregnant while on YAZ and with my husband having a vasectomy then there are a lot of people with questions that will need to be answered. She laughed too. Anyway, today was basically ALL of the paperwork that needed to be done, that way on Thursday I just show up and I am ready to go.

Off to try and finish another post that I've been working on...hopefully will get it posted in the next 24-48 hours.