I have spent most of the week preparing my world for surgery. I ordered a knee walker and a shower stool; stocked up on supplies (both food and entertainment); re-arranged the loft to be more crutch and walker friendly; and caught up with meetings and editors.
I've been busy checking things off my list, trying not to think about the actual surgery. Until I got hit with logistics in a one, two punch. First came in the mail, the letter authorizing my surgery. A simple line in the Requested Services Summary, Description of Service Code(s). The first description I expected "Repair of achilles tendon". Strait forward explanation of what this surgery is for. It was the second description that threw me, "Part removal of ankle/heel". It made it sound like some sort of amputation, like I would wake up and all the bone under my tattoo would be gone. Not a phrase to inspire the belief that everything will be fine and I will be up and running quickly!
Before hyper-ventilating and calling Dr. H. (not a completely unreasonable reaction considering some of the strange dreams I've been having about this surgery - I don't remember any prior to my knee surgery.) I decided that he actually meant shaving the Haglund's deformities and the bone spur. (You can see both on the photo of the x-ray below.) But still, bad wording.
The second came in a phone call from Dr. Hubbard's office. My surgery is scheduled for 7:30 am, which means I have to be at the surgery center at 5:30 am. Sit and do the math and that means I have to get up at 3:30 ish to be showered and awake enough to get to Union Square. Does it even make sense to go to bed?
On the plus side, they predict I'll be ready to go home by 8:30 - 9:00 am (which doesn't make 100% sense if the surgery lasts an hour unless they are wheeling me straight from the OR to the car) and I have to believe I'm the first surgery of the day. Dr. Hubbard's assistant said I should be happy it's early, because it means I won't be hungry like later patients.
The doctor is still waiting for insurance authorization to put me on a blood thinner, Lovenox, to prevent possible blood clots with my leg being immobilized for so long. I had been told that the PA would be talking to my hematologist and was expecting a blood thinner. Then I went on-line - from drugs.com "Lovenox can cause a very serious blood clot around your brain or spinal cord if you undergo a spinal tap or receive a spinal anesthesia (epidural)..." Didn't even get to the websites partial list of side-effects before emailing Dr. H., my pre-surgery packet says that my surgery uses an epidural instead of general anesthesia.
Maybe medical internet research IS a bad thing! In the meantime I'm left with four days to worry and obsess.
Maybe medical internet research IS a bad thing! In the meantime I'm left with four days to worry and obsess.
