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Saturday, February 22, 2014

< 1 Week Pre-Op

I have waited 9 months and now surgery is less than a week away.  It feels surreal.  I think that the majority of this feeling is that I am nearing the ending of school.  THAT is super exciting.  And surgery comes along with a different kind of excitement.  An excitement...erm...rather, hope that comes with the thought that this surgery could be a huge improvement for my quality of life.  The hope that if I can get a stable hip, that I could have a reduction in pain levels and be able to do things on my feet again, like shopping, going out with friends.  When I write it down like that it makes me sound super pathetic and a hermit.  In all honesty though, being on my feet all day hurting so much is so draining, that I barely have the energy to do anything but come home, collapse on the couch with my beloved heating pad, ice packs, and Tramadol.  THIS is the reason I am doing this surgery!  So bring it on!

Anesthesia called yesterday and I think I got my point across on how sick I get after general anesthetic.  The nurse and I had a nice chat about the factors that increase post-operative nausea/vomiting.  Apparently non-smokers, obese, people who get migraines, and people who get motion sickness are the strongest predictors of nausea and vomiting.  Awesome.  I have all of those except the obesity.  The strongest predictor she said was motion sickness...which is so odd that I haven't ever stumbled across this before because I get so car sick that I can't even ride in the back seat of the car around town because I get nauseous.  In the past we have tried scopolamine patches, Zofran, Phenergan, all of which do not help.  The nurse has noted it and I will definitely make the anesthesia team aware of this issue.  This is one of my main concerns about surgery. 

Another thing that is stressing me is that the insurance company has been so kind as to deny my surgery.  I hadn't heard anything from the insurance company or the surgeon's office and I called last week to see if everything was okay.  Apparently the surgeon is doing a peer-to-peer review on Monday to get my surgery covered.  His nurse said that I should really, really NOT worry about it as he WILL get it covered.  All in all, it still makes me very nervous because there is still that possibility that the surgery won't happen if I can't get it covered.  I mean, what else more do you need than subluxed hips on standing to get approved.  So now praying for this as well.  I hope it gets all straightened out.  The insurance makes me so nervous after what we went through in 2012 :/

1 comment:

  1. I'll be following your recovery! I'm super hopeful this surgery improves your quality of life. You've been through so much in the past few years (Is it 7?). It's time to get this done! You can do this :D I think I will bring a stuffed animal with me to the hospital to make me feel better :$ I need something to cuddle since I'll be gone from my kitties for a few weeks.

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