A friend and I were chatting this week and she remarked that I have a lot of fight in me. Kind words. I replied yes, but that I feel like my punches are getting weaker – this has been a long five months. Her reply was simple, but perfect – even professional athletes need a half time. Amen to that. It’s a great point – while I have felt like we are a bit weak right now, this really is our “half time”. The second part of this fight is going to be rough – we know that – and in some ways probably tougher than the first part. Regardless, we are gearing up to kick butt in the second half of this fight.
Today we had our pre-surgical meeting and prep. Really, not a whole lot happens, and quite frankly I wish we had gotten more answers - and it wasn’t for lack of trying. First, they did some bloodwork – which Tom didn’t realize would happen today. I was thinking that we had overcome some of the blood obstacles, but the minute the blood draw started….cue the profuse sweating, extreme paleness and blood pressure drop. I think it was a combination of a few things – but mostly I think it was because it has been a few weeks since he had to give blood and he got out of the “routine” of having to give blood.
Anyway, the nurse talked us through the day of surgery – asked tons of questions to confirm we won’t have any issues and then we figured out all of Tom’s medicines between now and then so we can get him off anything that could cause danger or issues the day of surgery. Then, our anesthesiologist came in and talked through the procedure from his view point and again asked questions, looked over Tom and made sure that he will be ready for Tuesday as well.
So here is what we do know:
Today we had our pre-surgical meeting and prep. Really, not a whole lot happens, and quite frankly I wish we had gotten more answers - and it wasn’t for lack of trying. First, they did some bloodwork – which Tom didn’t realize would happen today. I was thinking that we had overcome some of the blood obstacles, but the minute the blood draw started….cue the profuse sweating, extreme paleness and blood pressure drop. I think it was a combination of a few things – but mostly I think it was because it has been a few weeks since he had to give blood and he got out of the “routine” of having to give blood.
Anyway, the nurse talked us through the day of surgery – asked tons of questions to confirm we won’t have any issues and then we figured out all of Tom’s medicines between now and then so we can get him off anything that could cause danger or issues the day of surgery. Then, our anesthesiologist came in and talked through the procedure from his view point and again asked questions, looked over Tom and made sure that he will be ready for Tuesday as well.
So here is what we do know:
- Surgery is Tuesday, but will not start until late morning.
- We should tentatively plan for surgery to be about 6 hours (dagger in my heart).
- They are using a robot to start and then will make decisions from there (I YouTubed videos of the exact system they will be using and eventually had to turn it off because I started to gag – hence my lack of medical career!)
- Many parts of this procedure are very ambiguous. I know I’ve mentioned this before but they will be making a lot of decisions as the surgery unfolds and they get a better understanding of what they are dealing with. The number of sentences that started with “Well, that depends…” was killing me today.
- Tom will have some help breathing until they know he is stable, but should be breathing on his own by the time he leaves recovery.
- Our stay at the hospital depends (that damn word again!) on how the procedure plays out, but we are planning to be there for a few nights at a minimum.
