The Pre-Op Visit

I had my pre-op visit today. Everything went fine of course. I just had to do an intake triage, have vitals and physical assessment checked, sign some papers, and get some blood work and an EKG. Then I went up to Dr T's office to sign the consent forms for the surgery. All in all not too much stuff, but with the waiting in between pieces it took about three hours. So far so good, nothing more needed until I show up at 5:30am on the 22nd. That is going to be an early morning.

Symptoms wise I'm having an okay week. I notice the difference in the sides of my face more and more, and I've noticed sometimes the right side just feels tired. Like a muscle ache. I'm wondering if it's because the muscles on the right are having to try to pull everything up with the muscles on the left not doing much. I notice things like when I'm facing towards the sun, and my eyes naturally squint and my face scruches up, the right is the only one that does it unconsciously. I can move the left if I want to, but if I don't do it I've got one scrunchy eye and one wide open eye. It's weird.

Headaches, dizziness, nausea - all about the same. The worst is when I get a headache that feels like brain-freeze. It's not that it hurts especially bad at those times, but it just feels so wrong, like my brain is really trying to tell me "I need help in here!"
Help is on the way, buddy.

The main thing has just been exhaustion. I'm sooo tired! I've been going to bed by 9:30 lately, and sleeping until either 6:30 or 9 (depending on if it's my day to get up with the baby or not), and still feeling tired. I'm really sleeping the whole time, too, not just rolling around awake. I just want to sleep all the time.

I've been trying to get post-op stuff figured out so I don't have to worry about it in recovery. They are probably little trival things, but I have to think about something. I need to order some scrub caps to wear to work, since I don't want to scare the patients. (After all, do YOU want the nurse who looks like she just had brain surgery?) I tried to get contacts yesterday, thinking if I end up needing an eye patch on the left side it will be dumb to wear glasses over both eyes. The eye doctor didn't think it was a good time, though. He said "Even though it shouldn't effect your eyesight, doesn't mean it won't. Also, dexterity will probably be an issue for you in the beginning.." and demonstrated trying to put a contact in and instead jabbing my cheek with a finger. Point taken.

I'm also thinking about seeing how much it would cost to have a cleaning person come in a time or two. Our house is small so I don't think it would be that bad. I know me, though, and if there is something I probably should not be doing while recovering, I will want to do it. Even if it's a chore I wouldn't normally care for when able-bodied. Better to just plan for someone else to take care of it in the first place.

I may be calling on all those who have volunteered help pretty soon. I know my kids will be bored and/or stir-crazy if we're not doing much fun stuff, so if anyone wants to spend just an hour or so with them I know a new face with new energy will help. It wouldn't be babysitting per se, just playing!

And of course I need to figure out who to trust with updating the blog while I'm out...