Home from Pre-Op!

The morning went well. Started at 8AM and finished around 12 Noon! Here is what happened:

8 AM - Ultrasound on my left arm to see if the doctors could use a vein from my left arm for one of the by-passes. The young lady, Melissa, is married to one of my younger son's friends from Hempfield. Josh & her brother-in- law Mike Porreca were friends. Ten years ago, Josh was throwing TD's to Mike on the football field. Melissa is married to one of Mike's twin brothers. Melissa did a great job and the entire procedure took 30-45 minutes.

9:30 AM - Next to nurse, Diane. Diane's job is to take care of all the testing & blood work! First, blood work! Of course, I warned her I get light headed around needles! First needle was in my right hand around my wrist & lucky I was laying down, because I did get lighted headed! Here is a great page for needle phobia & I have never researched this - well let the research begin!

Needle Phobia

I did not realize that 10% of the population has this! You would think that doctors & hospitals would do a better job helping & informing patients! Well I'm working on it & the webite had some great ideas!

After the first blood sample was drawn, I had an EKG, another blood sample from my elbow area(this went better!), a urine sample, covered my medical history, and signed a bunch of papers for the procedure!

Last, I was given a prescription for Bactroban, which is a nasal medicine that I will discuss later.

Diane covered the Monday schedule, need to be there by 5:15 AM and surgery starts at 8AM!

Well, that was my Friday! 4 hours of poking, signing, and all the testing before surgery!