Preoperative Stuff and "Blandork"

Meg and I are at a Starbucks on the corner of Stanford and the El Camino Real. Our morning at the surgical admit. unit took longer that we thought. First we learned a lot more about the procedure, visiting policies, and aftercare from Nurse J. My day tomorrow starts at 5:00 a.m. Nurse J thought I would be in surgery for about 8 hours, so there may not be much news until late afternoon or early evening on Friday, after the surgeon talks to Meg.

After nurse J, I returned to the waiting area to be called in for blood work and an EKG. They called out the name "Blandork," and that sounded too messed up to be me. Five minutes later they called out "Blandooor." This time I stood up, and indeed, she was looking for me. About a half hour later I was done with blood work (five vials) and an EKG. Then we met with the physician's assistant who talked more about the procedure, my health history, and current health. She also did a minimal exam including pulse, blood pressure, and listening to my heart and lungs. She complemented me on my strong stomach muscles :)

Next Nurse J came back and asked if I would like to be part of a study regarding the causes of aortic tissue disorders, to which I agreed. Next we visited with the anesthesia coordinator for a few minutes. I asked about waking up with the breathing tube, and he said about one in three times patients wake up with it, giving my a 2 out of 3 chance of still be asleep when it's removed. For some reason, this is the only aspect of the time in intensive care that I'm concerned about. We were then dismissed with instructions to get a chest X-ray downstairs.

By now it was 1:00, and we were hungry so we stopped at the cafeteria first for lunch. The x-ray was quick, and we were on our way by about 1:50. We then went to Whole Foods before finding this Starbucks. We parked at the corner of Yale Street and Stanford Avenue. Meg took a picture of me under the corner street sign. We'll see if we can post it.

This is probably my last post for a while. I want to thank everyone who has sent me kind wishes. I really never knew till now just how many friends I have.