Pre-Op Appointment

One week before surgery, aka the day it starts to seem very real. Today my Mom and I went up to Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, MA for my pre-op tests; blood, urine, chest xray & EKG (I think it was an EKG, they hooked my up with a number of wires and checked my heart). I also talked to the pre-op nurse, who took all my information, and an anesthesiologist. That took about an hour and a half. Then we moved to Dr Black's office to speak to his nurse Nancy. She was very nice and answered all our questions. We were also able to get an authorization letter so we could get the patient discount at the hotel. I was given a number of more handouts and a pamphlet titled "5 Steps to Surgery" that has what to expect while at the hospital after surgery. Once we had finished with the appts. we were hungry and decided to try out the hospital cafeteria. The food was really good! My Mom had broiled scrod with rice and I had beef stew. They have valet parking for patients so I went to pay and before we knew it the car was in front of the hospital. $12.00 for six hours valet parking was so much better then the $23.00 for two and a half hours for regular parking at Mass Eye and Ear! We drove by the hotel we will be staying in the night before and noticed that they have a food court on the ground floor with, among other restaurants, a Dunkin' Donuts for Mom's coffee, Orange Julius/Dairy Queen for Frank, and Beantown Burrito for me :-)

Some of the things I found out today....
- The surgery is called a left frontal craniotomy.
- My hospital room will be on the 10th floor of the "Tower" (the Neuroscience floor) once I'm out of ICU.
- I was given a special surgical soap called Hibiclens to wash with two days before, the day before, and the morning of the surgery.
- Frank and my Mom will be given a beeper when I am admitted prior to surgery. That way they will be beeped when there is an update during my surgery. They will be able to go back to the hotel for a bit or get some breakfast and not worry about staying in the "family room" at the hospital. Speaking of the "family room" it is a really nice place for families and friends to wait while someone is in surgery. It has nice comfy chairs, lots of TVs, computers, a library, cubicles or private rooms if you want to wait in privacy, and is right under the cafeteria and patient rooms.
- Once I have my IV in Frank and my Mom will be able to stay with me until I'm wheeled to the operating room. They will then see me again in 6 hours when I get to ICU (I'll be in ICU for about 24 hrs after the surgery). Dr Black has the operating room booked for 6 hours for my surgery.
- I signed a paper donating what is left of the tumor after the pathology test and two vials of blood to a research project Dr Black is undertaking. I figured I didn't want it back so he might as well make good use of it (LOL).
- During the surgery they will cut my left jaw muscle (why?) so eating will be difficult for a while. When I wake up I will have 2 IVs, an arterial line, catheter, oxygen, the compression boots that prevent blod clots, and lots of beeping and buzzing machines all around me.
- When I go home I'll be on the following medications: anti-seizure because they will be working near the front part of my brain (dilantin, like my Mom has taken for years), steroids to help prevent swelling (decadron, 1 pill equals 10 prednisone from what I was told), pepcid to help prevent damage from the steroids, pain meds, and a laxative because bowel movements put pressure on your head and that would be very bad as I was told.
- I will have to ride in the back seat of any car that has air bags for four weeks because if I was to get an air bag in the face it would not be a good thing. As Frank says, now I can be a real back seat driver (LOL). I also won't be able to drive for about 4 weeks.
- Everyone at Brigham & Women's Hospital is super friendly!

So it looks like everything is all set. I have a few more doctors appointments and then next week at this time it will be over and I'll be in ICU being pestered by nurses every hour or so.