Finally I Had Insurance Approval

Finally after only a few days of waiting I got the call that I had insurance approval for the surgery.  OMG I couldn't believe it, not only that but they were booking appointments for early July and was sometime after the 10th good for me.  Uh that was freaking perfect.  So I again started calling and telling everyone and was just so happy I can still remember where I was when I got the call, cause you know 3 months ago was so long.  I was at my kids pediatrician's office where I spend a good deal of my time because my kids are walking diseases but that is another story.  So I start to patiently wait (read: call every four minutes) for my surgery date.  After I can't remember how long I started to panic that I didn't have a set date yet.  I started to look for different Dr's because I was irrational and freaked, even though I had originally been thinking that this wouldn't be happening till early fall anyways, suddenly I was dying to get a July date.  I was bitching to everyone I knew that my Dr took way too much time for this and blah blah blah.  Finally I got the call and the date was set.  I can't remember exact time frames but I think that in all I waited maybe two weeks.  Three tops one of which I was out of town on vacation.  The date was set for July 30th and was that acceptable.  Uh yeah that will be wonderful.  Date set all is good, now I can start to panic.

I really did have a fairly busy summer, for my standards at least.  We took a trip to Flagstaff for a week,  a week that would turn into vacation hell I might add.  Then I had my daughters birthday party, which was good except I decided to make her cake and really it was just sad looking.  Then I took the kids camping by myself for a week at the coast, my parents and siblings were there but Dave had to work.  After getting back from camping all I had to do was wait, wait and worry.  I think it was somewhere around July first I decided I would die during the operation.  I didn't tell anyone this until about 2 weeks pre-op so as not to ruin their time at the coast.  I started trying to cram in a ton of activities with my kids and family, since I would be dying soon and all.  I also started eating like a moose in heat, assuming that a moose in heat eats a lot, I know when I am on my period I eat a lot so it stands to reason I moose would too.  Anyways at some point I discovered Dryers chocolate peanut butter cup loaded ice cream along with Reese's peanut butter sauce ice cream topping.  So I gained roughly 10 pounds pre-op but to be honest it was probably closer to 15, since I didn't weigh myself till after surgery and I was up ten then. 

About a week before my surgery I wrote letters to my kids and my husband telling them how sorry I was that I died and that sort of thing.  I was that sure I was soon to be a corpse.  I stopped sleeping somewhere around three days pre-op and was just crabby.  I was nesting too.  Suddenly I just couldn't have surgery if my house wasn't clean.  You know for the wake to be held after my funeral I guess.  The day before my surgery I planned a full day of fun with the kids, mainly to keep my mind of my impending doom and to get in a few last priceless memories with my soon to be motherless kids.  Then it was time to drop them off at my moms and go home and panic.  I took a Valium before bed in hopes that I would sleep and I did sleep pretty good although I woke way to early.  We needed to leave here by 9:30 to get to the hospital by 11:00 for my surgery appt.  The actual surgery wasn't scheduled until 12:45 and I thought that I would be going nuts in that hour and 45 minute gap.  I woke up that morning and did a little more picking up.  Took a shower packed my bag and we were off.  We were in Dave's car which has no shocks BTW and I am pretty sure I didn't stop talking the entire way. 

When we got to the hospital we were totally lost, we got there with 30 minutes to spare, which we spent trying to find the entrance.  This place is a nightmare there are a million entrances and buildings and such.  I finally called from the car and they talked us in.  We get in to the info desk and she had to call around to find out where I was supposed to be and after going through the maze of hallways we found the surgery center.  We went to check in and were told to have a seat while the receptionist checked me in.  The nurse came out for me before the check-in was even finished and I was pretty thankful for that, because I would have chewed a hole in my face sitting there waiting.  I was let into a room filled with gurneys or beds or whatever you want to call them separated by curtains each with an I.V pole in front of it with the name of the patient on it.  There I was on a blank white paper was my name in sharpie.  I was given the gown, the be closed in the back which seemed odd considering they were working of the front but I did what I was told.  I was then assaulted by a medical team, who were all actually so very nice and calming.  They were all asking questions and sticking iv's in and taking temps and blood pressures and such.  Every minute someone would ask if the Dr had marked me yet and I would say no.  Dave sat there through it all not, passing out when the did the IV or anything.  He was awesome.  Then finally the Dr came to do the markings and Dave left to go get some work done.  He was told it would be a 3 to 4 hour surgery so he had time.  Last time he was told that was with the birth of my son and he had barely left for some food when the kid decided to make an escape attempt.  Anyways the Dr came to do the markings and this is just one of those times you get the stupid giggles, could have in part been the drugs in my IV too, but I found it all amusing and it kinda tickled.  I was really laughing pretty hard.  Then they stuck a mask on my face and I started to go down, not real down. The gas they were pumping through was really itchy, I kept taking the mask off to itch and the nurse said oh that is really itchy sorry...um figured that out thanks.  They took me into the O.R. and I remember asking, is this the O.R. or a storage closet, the nurse said I was funny, and that was it.  Fade To Black