Surgery Appointment Details

Today seemed to drag as I waited for the phone call to let me know when the surgery would take place. Finally about 3:45pm Heather called with the details and then sent me an email with the particulars of the surgery:

Dear Ms Linhares,

Your pre-admitting testing has been scheduled for Thursday, August 10, 2006 at 11:15am. (Pre-op can take approximately 3-4 hrs please plan accordingly)

Your appointment with The Neurosurgical Nurses is for Thursday, August 10, 2006 at 2:45pm.

Your surgery has been scheduled for Thursday , August 17 , 2006 at 7:30am. Time of procedure subject to change. You will need to arrive at the hospital, two hours prior to surgery. Report to the Admitting Office at the 75 Francis Street Entrance.

Remember nothing to eat or drink after midnight the night before surgery.

No aspirin or aspirin containing products (including Advil, Motrin and Aleve) two weeks prior to surgery. If you are on Coumadin or Celebrex please notify us as soon as possible.

So the surgery will be on a Thursday and be 4 to 6 hours long from the time I enter the operating room until I am in recovery or ICU. I'll be in the hospital until the following Monday or Tuesday. Friday, after surgery, will be spent in ICU. This is actually better then when I'd been told that the surgery would be on a Monday because now Frank can come to see me on Sunday while I'm in the hospital, otherwise I won't see him at all because he doesn't get paid vacation or sick days and we need to have an income. Also my Mom has Thursdays off from work so she doesn't have to try to rearrange her schedule. Unfortunately we need to be at the hospital at 5:30am which means we will need to leave the house about 4am to allow for any traffic or road work. Heather mentioned that most people get a hotel room and sent info on several hotels that are very close to Brigham and Woman's Hospital. I'm not sure what we will do since it is a lot of money just to sleep for a couple more hours of sleep.