After I posted my Game Day post, I was called into one of the offices to have a final meeting with the nurse who was organising the last few details that needed to be covered before I went in for surgery.
This was mostly administrative. All of my details were checked and I was given a red hospital band for each wrist that had all of my personal details on them. It was red to indicate that I had allergies (alcowipes and fabric bandaids). Apparently I had one for each wrist for easy access to my details while I am in the operating theatre.
I was then given a bag to put my clothes in and was told that I needed to have a shower with special soap and get into a hospital gown, booties and a cap and moved into a waiting room bed. My husband was allowed in this room with me and we had a few minutes to chat before they wanted to wheel my bed to the theatre waiting room.
In the theatre waiting room, I was introduced to the anaesthesiologist and her assistant. The next level of prep was to put me underneath a 'huggie blanket' that pumped hot air around me to raise my body temperature. With the longer surgeries one of the things that they need to keep a close eye on is body temperature dropping. Apparently by starting warmer, the risk drops.
As I lay waiting, slowly getting more toasty warm, people would come past and put different things on the end of my bed. There were leg gutters and the foot pump machine and another blanket. I didn't know what the gutters and the foot pumps were about until some time later. It all seemed a little bit surreal.
The surgeon came in to have a quick chat too. We talked about which side I wanted him to do first, the one that was causing me the most pain and went through the reason that we needed to make this decision before going in. After the first one is completed, the surgeon and anaesthesiologist make the decision to continue making sure that I am doing well under the anaesthetic and any additional risks or concerns are assessed at this time before they cut the second side and get started. He marked both legs with a marker pen indicating that I had chosen the right one to be done first and said he'd see me soon.
The anaesthesiologist came back and put a arterial line in and told me that we wouldn't be too much longer. Not long seemed like a very long time for me. I didn't have any of my personal belongings so I couldn't read, my husband hadn't been allowed in this area, so I had no one to talk to. I was too wired to sleep so that was out. I wasn't nervous, just ready to go in and get things going. I resorted to eavesdropping on the nurses conversations to keep myself occupied. Not the most ethical activity but my brain was buzzing and there wasn't much more in this sterile environment that I could do to pass the time.
After cooking for what seemed like forever, it was time to be taken into theatre. I was wheeled in and shifted over to the theatre table. Everyone seemed happy and cheery and I took that as a good sign. The operating table was covered with an air mattress type thing making it strangely squishy. The thing that surprised me was how small the table seemed. I still haven't figured out how the whole process went as far as how I was positioned for the surgeon to work on me and whether I actually lay on one operated side as the other was completed. It's another of those questions that I really wanted to ask the surgeon but think it's probably a little silly to want to know these kind of things and keep my mouth shut.
I sat on the side of the operating table as the theatre assistant stood in front of me explaining that soon I would be given something that would make me feel a little drunk and not too worry, he would make sure that I didn't fall off the bed. The fluid was injected via the drip on my left arm and I started to feel a bit more than a little drunk. The feeling was quite pleasant and they spoke to me, keeping me in the loop about what was going on. The spinal was next and I recall leaning forward with the theatre assistant making sure I didn't fall forward in my drunken state. I don't remember it actually being put in.
The next thing I remember is waking up in ICU.
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