My Pre-Op Day

So, today was the pre-op day. Keeping to my promise to stay current, here are the events as they unfolded.

The St. Louis medical complex is in the heart of St. Louis. It is comprised of various medical facilities including, Barnes-Jewish Hospital North and South Complexes, Children's Hospital, and the Center for Advanced Medicine. The entire complex is connected via a covered walkway which was great, since it's around 100 degrees outside today!

My morning began at the Center for Advanced Medicine at 8:00am where I registered, gave a medical history, several viles of blood and a hearty urine sample, if I might brag. I was given a special super cleaning soap to use tonight and tomorrow morning. This is obviously used to super-clean the skin and goes to reduce chance of post-surgical infection. (I'm sure this is standard practice and in no way a subtle hint at my personal hygeine) I had some time to kill so stopped in the cafe for some breakfast. Typical hospital quality, but what can ya do!

Next, it was off to Children's Hospital for my pre-op assessment with the rhizotomy team. There I again went over medical history info and signed various consents, etc. They took me right away, which was nice. I already was well ahead of schedule so I was grateful not to have to wait long.

Next, I met with a PT and a cameraman. It was time to make a movie. Now, normally I charge for this kind of work but considering they were ultimately doing me a huge favor with this whole surgery thing, I worked pro-bono. The video is for pre-op baseline documentation to be compared later post-op. I was asked to perform various physical tasks, ranging from walking and running, to the slightly more humorous requests of crawling up stairs and jumping over sticks. Being one not to get in the way of good clinical information, I cooperated and pray that such footage remains contained. (It will, this is a shot at humor). On my way out of the appointment, the surgeon, Dr. Park happened to be walking by. We had a breif conversation and I told him to get plenty of sleep tonight! My four-month post-op appointment was given to me as November 16th 2009. There, another movie will be made (we are currently in negotiations for salary) and the results will be compared to baseline. The staff at Children's is wonderful and the environment set up through the entire hospital is very positive!

Finally, it is time to have "X mark the spot". I went to the Nuclear Imaging where my spine was inked for the incision site. This was easy, painless. Basically, it's a real-time X-Ray machine.

That was it! Now, just relaxing and looking forward to a night of very little sleep, I'm sure. No big deal as from Friday to Monday I have strict orders to be flat on my back! :)

My brother Mike will be updating the blog tomorrow through Monday. I expect that Monday will be my first day I will try to get out of bed!