Surgery...Almost!

Well, sometimes not everything goes as planned.

I was thankfully very calm as the surgery got closer. The only time I got somewhat nervous and I think it really hit me is when I spoke to the hospital and got my surgery time. I needed to be admitted by 9:30am and the operation was scheduled for 11am. Oh boy! It was really gonna happen. But that was the only moment of nervousness.

I even woke up the next day (March 17) not sure why my alarm went off so early...LMAOOO. We got up, I made sure to put away all my bottles of water and my lotions in preparation and to avoid the temptation. I took my cat shower (yuck...you shower with anti-bacterial soap and then they give you these wet cloths to "dry" yourself with but they make your body sticky so I felt like I just licked myself like a cat! LOL). My mom, John and I were so calm it felt like it was going to happen to somebody else. I think all the prayers and positive energy from family and friends helped sooo very much!

We got to the hospital early and started the process. I put on my surgical outfit and just waited to see Dr. F as promised because he knew I was in a lot of pain and he wanted to see me before we went in to try to figure it out. While we waited, we people watched.

Dr. F finally stopped by to see me and he was accompanied by Dr. G (surgeon who is retiring me and kinda "dumped" me)!!!!! I was so happy to see him there. He came to watch my surgery like he said he would. I thought that was really nice. Well, Dr. F was really really concerned about this new pain, he was worried that the pain would get much worse after surgery and then he would just feel guilty for putting me in that situation. He preferred calling it off since it's an elective procedure and doing it any other time, but trying to figure out what it is right now. He said the first step would be to take an MRI to see if it would be a spine problem, then to see the neurologist, Dr. K (I had already met him 5 years ago when I was first getting diagnosed).

I can't say that I was not disappointed. I was actually really disappointed because I am sooo ready to start this process and it was also a little frustrating because I was just at the hospital on Monday and we could have done all of that then. But I was glad to see he was being cautious and worried about my condition so I had to be happy about that.

Soo then starts our tour through the hospital lol....we saw so many people and went to so many floors. First, I had to get discharged, then we went to the MRI where I was told there would be a really long wait..as long as we were already there, I didn't want to leave and have to drive back into the city. Thankfully I didn't have to wait long because the lady in front of me gave up after 5 minutes because she panicked. I had never done an MRI before so I had no expectations, I was okay because I thought I could just go to sleep and it was supposed to be 45 minutes. Little did I know, they ask you NOT to sleep while you're in there because sometimes your body twitches involuntarily in your sleep and the technician told me I had to be in there for an hour and a half!!!!!! Holy kakamoley!!!!! The machine I was in was sooo tight that I started having a panic attack, it felt like I was being buried alive, I tried closing my eyes and taking deeper breaths and it wasn't working. So I decided to pray...pray to every guardian angel and saint I could think of...just ask for them to calm me down so I could go through with the test. And since I so strongly believe in the power of prayer, what do you know??? Not even 2 minutes later, I could feel myself calming down. At one point, my body jerked a little because I was falling asleep and I started praying all over again for them to calm me down but not that much! LOL that I still needed to stay awake so I started singing songs in my head. The most uncomfortable thing is that my right leg and foot started going numb which is very painful for me. My foot felt like a rock and started to twitch a bit, which was out of my control (I didn't take my meds that day because of the surgery). Thankfully I MADE IT! The whole hour and a half!!! I was actually really proud of myself...

Then we headed to the neurologist's office. Again they were fitting me in as an emergency so we waited a bit and then he came in. He was sooo good!!! He knew exactly what to do and what do you know??? All this pain I'm feeling IS a result of the injection I did last week. Not because of the steroids but because the nerve where they applied the injection is irritated. He touched the place on my hip and I immediately felt the exact same pain on my thigh. He's confident this is not a lasting problem and I should be okay within the week. He didn't give me any medicine to take but told me to put the lidocaine patch on it and it should get better. He thinks we should hold off on the surgery for about a week and I should be better by then. Thank GOD! Our last stop was to do a blood test to check to make sure the Vitamin B level in my blood is within a good limit otherwise it could impact how I feel in a negative way.

Today I called my surgeon's office and he's out of town at a conference and will be back on Monday. I guess I'll know more then. The pain is teensy tiny bit better today, it's been a little easier to walk and to stand up. John and I went and sat on Boulevard East because it was such a beautiful day and I just wanted to feel some sun on my skin.

Sometimes life has other plans for us and we have to roll with the punches. I've never been great with a change of plans but I've been so relaxed that I really feel okay about this one. I know it will happen when the time is right.