It’s true – what “they” say about it. The prep is the worst of it.
10:00 a.m. – arrived at hospital, just under the wire and picked up my paperwork. Then hoofed it up to the second floor to “same day surgery.” The nurses put me directly into a curtained cubicle and instructed me about how to put on the always-functional-never-beautiful hospital gown. Hubbie and nurse left the cubicle while I changed.
Next steps were the questions and the answers and the information and the paperwork and the being hooked up to monitors and having an IV stick. All went swimmingly.
The anethesiologist and the surgeon visited me to give the the “scoop” and to sign off their paperwork.
11:00 a.m. – nurse came in and wheeled me to surgery; hubbie left to run an errand. In the surgical room, two nurses and anethesiologist Chuck awaited me. Minutes later surgeon Dr. Garrett Smith arrived; Mercedes, one of the nurses, mentioned that another nurse would be joining us. After Dr. Smith’s arrival, the nurse instructed me how to position myself (on my left side, knees bent at about 90 degree angle), and Chuck told me what meds he was adding into my IV. The last thing I remember is hearing him say, “have a nice vacation.” He had encouraged me earlier to think of a lovely vacation spot that I wanted to go to before I “went to sleep.”
The next thing I remember is that Chuck asked me a question, and I answered by asking him a question. Then he said, “you’re all done.”
“I’m all done, already?”
“Yep.”
11:30 a.m. (ish) – I was back in the cubicle, and Matt was there; he said he had just returned from his errand. I was feeling fairly loopy still, but asked the nurse how long the procedure lasted. “20 minutes.” This was good news, because Dr. Smith had said if there were no issues, it would take about 20 minutes for the scope.
Once again, Chuck and then Dr. Smith visited me. Chuck said that everything went great; my blood pressure stayed the same throughout, which was the main thing Chuck was monitoring during the scope. Dr. Smith brought pictures and a good report that everything looked normal; he said that my organ looked so perfect that he had to take a picture of it, and then showed me which photo that was and explained what he meant. (Prior to the procedure, I had decided that I didn’t want to view pictures, but in my somewhat loopy state, it didn’t seem so gross.)
A nurse asked me for my drink order, and I chose water. Later she brought me some orange juice, too. As I was incredibly thirsty and hungry, both were welcome. They require a patient to drink something after the scope to ensure that swallowing is indeed working.
11:50 a.m. (ish) – Nurse said that I could get dressed, but that she had to help me to stand up and then evaluate my steadiness. I was steady and got dressed. Hubbie signed my release papers, and we were out of there by noon-ish, headed for Starbucks and then Wendy’s. (Not tons of choices in the small town where this all occurred.)
I am happy to have this behind me. It was not only an important physical health milestone, but also an important spirit/soul health milestone. I needed to face this particular dreaded experience and walk through it, holding His hand. I am grateful for all of the prayers (touched by hubbie and kids’ prayers for me so much) and for His peaceful Presence with me. I rejoice in how far He has brought me in trusting Him and in rejecting the false and negative narrative about what might happen.
One final note: God has such a sense of humor. I realized in the midst of my prep that not only was I going forward with a procedure I said I would never voluntarily have, I was also having a procedure done in a hospital I vowed I would avoid. This was a milestone.
Can you guess the procedure?
~ cleared for another 10 years, on the Indiana prairie
amylynndemoss 
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