Pre-Admission Unit - Ottawa Civic this morning

My appointment was for 8:30 at the Admitting Department on the main floor.   I had arrived early, 8:15, and had no wait at all.   I signed the necessary forms, showed my insurance forms, declined both a television and a phone.  Total time?  Eight minutes max.

Then I walked over to the elevators to take me to the first floor, E wing, for the pre-op part of the visit.   I checked in at the desk, was given two booklets and waited no more than six or seven minutes.  I was then taken to a private room where several vials of blood were taken by a technician.   I was asked to change in to a hospital gown, nude from the waist up, and get on to the hospital bed as another tech arrived and took an ECG.   After that a nurse spent about 30 minutes with me, taking blood pressure, blood oxygen levels.  We went through all my medications (which I had brought with me), covered all the procedures for Same Day Admission outlined in one of the booklets (the other booklet is on Pain Management), and answered any questions I had. 

One thing that falls under "I wish I had known that and they are going to change it" was that while the Weight Management Clinic booklet "Patient Information - Your Guide to Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery" (given at the pre-op information session in December) says I should bring my CPAP machine to this appointment, it was not required.   While not unduly heavy, it was just annoying to have lugged it in unnecessarily.

That being done, I waited another ten minutes, still in the same room, still on the bed, still in the gown, and then met the anesthesiologist.  He listened to my heart, lungs, reviewed all the cardiac tests, had me open my mouth and checked my throat.  We had quite a laugh over my hesitation/embarrassment over my full dentures.   He said that when they see folks in beds lined up for the operating room and they have their blankets over their mouths, the staff know that they aren't going to have any trouble intubating those people without teeth, and that the staff call us their favourites.   Who would have thought?   I will be asleep for the intubation, which suits me just fine.

I left the unit at 10:30 -- just over two hours from start to finish.

I stopped at the Pharmacy on the ground floor on the way out and bought some unflavoured Beneprotein.

A good day ... this is very real now.

mmm

Day 11 of 16 on OptiFast

Thank you so much for this information!  I go for my pre-op appt tomorrow and was wondering what was going to happen.  My surgery is scheduled for Jan 28/2013 at St. Joe's Hamilton.

Congrats on your upcoming surgery... I added you to the Surgery List.

Feel free to let me know any info I missed that you would like added to the list via reply to one of my posts or via pm.

Shell

Thanks, Shell :)   You had already done this for me.  Just for the record, I only intend to have this surgery once. *grin*

mmm

*giggle*

Yes but *points above* Heather_G came out of the wood work and posted... so your patt's thread made it so I could find another for the list. Last night was a big add night.

How are you doing? I remember very clearly the excited nerves a few weeks ago.

Shell

*grin*

I'm good -- I am having very brief moments of "what the bleep am I doing to myself!?!", but they pass.  I am ready for this.

More importantly, how are *you* doing?

mmm

I'm not quite up to going dancing for an evening but I am pretty good overall.

I don't know if I have lost any pounds but I know I've lost inches (the two never seem to go hand in hand). I lost them in my arms and legs... I wasn't fully prepared to see my waist line bloat with the post surgery swelly belly (gas, inflammation and swelling from the procedure, etc) and had a "face palm" moment when I clued in that this had happened. It takes weeks for that to subside after a surgery so I am officially paused with the waist measurement.

I find I have had to make things about the full fluids work for me. I have some allergy issues so it has made a lot of my diet cold foods and that was a struggle as I like my food warm... so I have been combining things Ia m allowed and baking them. *grin*

oh and... keep a small pillow near you. If you have to cough, sneeze, ride in a car... hold it to your tummy. It is incredibly helpful.

Shell

*hugging you*

And, one more time, incredibly helpful information.   I would never have thought that the belly bloat would be something I should prepare for.   I mean, I know I'm going to be inflated like a balloon on circus day, but I just thought that happened on the inside.  Truth be told, I never thought about the outside.   I'm honest to gawd laughing myself silly at my naiveté.

Best of luck (and planning) with your own particular food combining.

Thanks!

mmm

*hugging you back*

Honestly... No one talks about it but when I have broached it with others it's all... "yeah that takes weeks to go down". *blink*

So here we have all these lovely people thinking their waist bands will shrink with the surgery and everyone forgets to mention the surgical bloating that happens... So I was all... OMG over the 3-7 inch flux daily (if I did too much/sat up too much it would go up to 7 inches over my pre-surgical waist)... Bring on the comfy pants (that are stretchy and can sit somewhere other then the tender spots) for a few days. *chuckle* I have a sudden understanding of all the "my pants are fitting tighter" posts.

Back at you with your own planning and combining post op.

You are going to rock this!

Shell

Best wishes for you tomorrow(today) and for the 28th, of course.

mmm