Pre-Op

I met with my orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday to go over the procedure again.  I felt like I should have asked more questions, but I couldn't think of anything else to ask.  I even went home and looked up the procedure on YouTube to see what she'll be doing - that has to be a morbid pre-med trait.  I don't think any of my non-pre-health friends would YouTube their own surgery out of curiosity.

Even though I feel like I should prodded my doctor for more info, I like her and trust her to have explained the important details to me.  Her secretary, on the other hand, is like a chipmunk that talks a mile-a-minute.  Thank goodness she was only summarizing the consent forms.

I'll be going into the hospital on Wednesday at 6 am (ugggggggggggggh).  I will probably ask the anesthesiologist to hold off on giving me a nerve block for my arm.  Hopefully my post-anesthesia wake-up doesn't involve a lot of groggy thrashing.  Anesthesiologists are funny sometimes: a few of the ones I worked with had the "magic touch" and all of their kids would wake up perfectly calm, while the rest typically ran for the hills when the kid started waking up screaming.

I'm a little nervous.  It's weird that I am, since this is something I have been wanting for a while.  Then again, I have other issues if I actually feel excited.  If surgery goes well, I am looking forward to getting back some range of motion, but it will take time for me to actually feel mentally comfortable moving my left arm normally again.  Certain things have become habit now, like only sleeping on my back or right side, or not reaching back with my left arm.  With some good physical therapy and a good recovery, those things will be minor things to overcome.