Pre-Op Visit
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The pre-op visit was a lot of hurry up and wait. An x-ray was taken. I talked to Dr. Tomford. Vital signs were taken. Blood tests were done. I talked to a nurse. I talked to an anesthesiologist. I gave a unit of blood. All told, it took seven hours. I guess Mass. General isn't very efficient from the standpoint of a single patient.

The nurse gave me a set of exercises to do to keep my leg muscles in tone. And she told me how the discharge planning would work and about visiting nurses after discharge.

The anesthesiologist talked about general anesthesia versus a spinal. At first I thought I'd want to have general. But I heard from so many people about the nausea and sore throat from general anesthesia I started leaning toward the spinal. We decided to postpone that decision until the day of the surgery.

There are restrictions on medications up to a week before the surgery. I could not eat or drink anything after midnight before the surgery.

One thing that I was not told but I am glad I thought of was to clip my toenails the night before surgery. I won't be able to clip my own toenails for three months or so.

 

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