I can feel it. Yep, it's bad...

Yesterday, I had my MRI and pre-op appointment.  

Radiology was about 20 minutes behind with their MRIs.  

 The tech said the orders looked different so she called my neurosurgeons office to verify what exactly they wanted.  

As it turns out I had a full MRI instead of just the brain lab series.  

So this more than doubled the time the MRI would take.  

She said I get to be the first patient to use their new MRI. 

This one takes super super detailed images.  

She mentioned fibers...  I don't know exactly what it is really called.  I have tried to look it up but no luck.  So they will have a lot of detailed images of all that is going on in my brain.  

Oh yes and one of the techs Simone, has been there for all of my MRIs since May of last year. 

 She remembers me,so when I left I told her, "I'm sure I will see you soon!"

We made it to my pre-op appointment 20 ish minutes late.  

The people there were all great.  

The appointment pretty much was giving them the same info I gave last time right before surgery.  

Detailed medical history, pharmacy information etc...a blood draw (just like the morning of last time) and a sit down with the anesthesiologist. 

 Last time I had an anesthesiologist come talk to me but there was a different one in the OR.  

(Just found that out yesterday.). 

This anesthesiologist Dr. Henderson will be the one with me next Wednesday.  

They will take measures prior to sedating me to help with post-op nausea.  

So here's hoping I don't yak like last time.  

I will take mass amounts of pain over nausea or just vomiting  any day.  

Blech! 

She reviewed I will have at least two IV's, possibly a port depending on vein options but I usually have good veins.  

I also will have another in my wrist going into an artery to very precisely monitor my blood pressure with every single heart beat.  

She said at different points throughout the procedure they will need to raise and lower my blood pressure... 
 She told us about the first step of sedating me prior to inserting the breathing tube.  

This will be general anesthesia vs. MAC/heavy sedation like the biopsy. 

 She was really nice and explained everything very well.  

Again, I will have a CT after to check on how everything looks.

 I may be still asleep at that point. 

 Following this I will be moved into ICU.  

Then she had touch base with the possibilities of things not going to plan. 

They may have to decide to not wake me up. 

I would remain intubated and stay in ICU. 

OR

I may not "want" to wake and I would stay in ICU while they monitor me and I "decide" to wake up.

Yeah, I know those won't happen but it was a pretty sobering moment. 

Yuck. 

Things went well and took a long time.  

After it all I had to head to the tire store because Andrew noticed on Sunday evening there was a gash through the first layer of sidewall on the passenger front tire on the van.

Remember how I mentioned there seems to be a necessary amount of chaos maintained ??

Another point on the list supporting the theory. 

So two new tires for the van 

and

hopefully we will save up in the next few months to get the van a whole new set of tires. 

After that I came home to the Boys.  Aidan asked me if they took out the "bad spot."

I reminded him that is next week (8 days now) and I only had pictures of my brain taken

and

had an appointment to show them how healthy I am. 

He seems OK. 

He later asked me if I would be able to lay next to him and read his bedtime book. 

I said, "Of Course." 

(He knows that after surgery laying flat will not be comfortable for me to do.)

He then asked me where the bad spot was. 

So, I showed him. 

He said, "Can I touch it?"

I said, "Sure."

He said, "Oh yeah, I can feel it.  Yup, it's bad all right."

So, now I wait for a phone call about the delivery of our new dishwasher..

Yep, ours no longer cleans dishes.  They need a  pre-wash, dishwasher wash and then we end up washing them again. (chaos again)

We will get that tomorrow. 

Pray install goes well.  Andrew is doing it.  He is very handy and this saved us some cash too.  

Then I should get a call from the hospital confirming my arrival time on the 13th and a call from my neurosurgeon's office to walk me through the procedure.