The Story So Far

I checked with my insurance company and they verified that I do not have a pre-existing condition clause in my supplement. Thus my supplement is effective now. So that takes away one worry. I was scheduled for April 4 and I was ready for it:

* I got the EKG and the chest x-ray on March 12.
* I got the blood and urine tests the following week.
* My daughter made a reservation for a plane ticket to be with me for the first three days.
* I arranged to put a hold on my gym membership starting April 4 (that's today).

But then came the glitch.

I was scheduled for a pre-op appointment on March 30 with the doctor, and with a rep from the hospital on March 31. When I went to the doctor appointment the nurse told me she had been trying to reach me. There was an abnormality on my EKG and they were trying to get clearance from my regular doctor. The surgery may have to be postponed. But because I was already there the doctor came to see me. I told him I really wanted to stick to that original date if we could. He said he would go ahead with the pre-op appointment and I should go ahead with the hospital pre-op appointment and he would do what he could to keep it on schedule.

At the pre-op at the doctor's office they took my temp and blood pressure, then the doc came in to explain what I would need to do from that point:

* Get prescriptions for one oxycontin tablet, to be taken the day of the surgery, plus a special kind of antibiotic to take on days I had dental work done (after surgery for the rest of my life), plus another type antibiotic ointment which I would dab into each nostril twice a day until the day of the surgery.
* Pick up a cleanser called Hibiclens. I would clean my leg, from armpit to toes, twice a day, using this formula.

The ointment and Hibiclens have been shown to reduce chances of infection significantly. The use of the antibiotic before dental work reduces the chance of infection in the knee.

The following day I went to the hospital, got shuffled from place to place, finally met with a couple of reps there. Lots of papers. They did the filling out, asked me questions. Essentially I was pre-admitted so I would not have to fill anything out when I came in for surgery.

The following day I learned that no, the surgery can't go forward on April 4. The cardiologist who looked at the EKG could not, in all conscience, clear me for surgery. I took a lot of deep breaths, could hardly blame them for this decision. The doctors both talked to me at length, both worked hard to get this issue cleared up as quickly as possible. I ended up with an appointment for a stress test for this Wednesday, April 6.

And so my daughter changed her plane reservations, I changed the hold on my gym membership, and I have been explaining and explaining to those I meet that no, no surgery yet.