Pre-Op

On Wednesday, Mom and I went to all of my pre-op appointments.  First, we hit the hospital where they make you talk to the money people, of course, before you see any nurses.  My nurse was kind of old, and was not in a good mood.  I don't know about you, but hospitals make me nervous.  A nurse with a surly attitude does not help matters at all.  Mom and I were determined that we would talk to her until she decided to be nice to us, and it took us an hour and a half, but we finally succeeded in getting her to smile.  What I learned from the hospital pre-op:  you can't take fish oil pills before a surgery.  Who knew?

My second appointment was with Dr. Stacey, the plastic surgeon.  He's very young (31ish!) and has a cute little nurse named Amy.  They are both very nice and helpful, and they always make me feel like everything is going to be ok.  Amy is also very open and informal about what may happen; for example, I shouldn't freak out if I wake up and things look really, really crazy.  Apparently, that will get better.  One thing that was a little...well, unsettling, was that while Dr. Stacey talked to me, he had a picture of my naked chest up on his laptop.  I had a hard time answering his questions because I just wanted to reach over and close the screen!  (I had another uncomfortable moment the last time I was there, when he handed me a silicone implant for one hand and a saline for the other.  It makes it a little difficult to stay serious and not laugh when you're holding boob implants in each hand!)  What I learned from pre-op with Stacey:  I may never have to wear an underwire bra again.  (I learned lots of other disturbing things, but I'm choosing to focus on the positive)

My third appointment of the day was with Dr. Cross.  Dr. Cross is amazing.  If any of you ever need a surgical oncologist, and I pray that you don't, please go to him.  I cannot say enough good things about him.  Anyway, this appointment was very short; he drew on me with a purple pen, wrote me prescription for a Z pack because I have a cold, and then let me leave.  What I learned from the third pre-op:  I won't ever have to have another mammogram!  Yay!!!!!  No more evil machine!

A lot of people have asked if I'm getting nervous.  YES.  Yes, I am. Extremely.  I have total faith in my doctors and I know that everything will turn out ok, but I'm still really anxious.  I'm more nervous about the pain, and getting sick from anesthesia.  I'm also starting to freak out a little about not being able to do anything for a month.  I have known about that, of course, but the actual reality of not being able to bathe myself or fix my own hair finally hit me.  I'm very independent, and having to rely on other people soooo much kind of bothers me.  I'm blessed to have a great mom who is taking off work to take care of me, and wonderful friends who have promised to come over for movie nights.  

I'm going to consider this my Hugh Hefner period because I will be wearing pajamas for a month and will be doing lots of worrying and talking about breasts.  It's worked for him for about 80 years, so I guess I can do it for a month!