My Pre-Op Appointment-LONG

[Guest guest]

Elaine called yesterday to confirm I was having surgery on Friday

afternoon and then told me I had to get my booty in there today for

my Pre-Op Appt. with Rabkin.

Well, we(Viola, my baby and I) arrived at 1:20 prompt. There were

two or three other people in the waiting room. Two looked to be post-

op and were there for check-ups and then there was this real b****

named Sheila. I don't think I have ever seen a grown up throw a

tantrum like she did. Elaine asked her to fill out one of

the 'Juicy' sheets and she snarled at her, " Why should I, I haven't

even had my surgery yet! " Elaine explained that you have to do it at

every appt. regardless. She huffed this big put-out sigh and

grabbed the clipboard out of Elaine's hand and then when she was done

she threw it back at her, slmamming it down on the counter.

Anyhow, I don't know what her problem was but she continued to be a

total butt the rest of the afternoon, giving us dirty looks and

treating Rabkin's staff like doggy doo. She made this huge deal out

of getting on her cell phone saying, " I GUESS I WON'T BE BACK TO WORK

TODAY " really loudly.

But back to my story...

Doctor Rabkin apparently got hung u in surgery because we waited and

waited. Viola totally dissected my purse and then we ran down to the

garage for a diaper change and a hit on the sippy cup. Finally at 3

we ran down to the cafeteria and had some pretzels and 7-UP. Viola

was very well behaved considering all the waiting. When we got back

I spent a few minutes talking with Barbara, the nurse. She explained

everything I had to do before surgery and answered some questions.

Then at quarter to four they told me I had better run up to do the

pre-admitting process. Rabkin was still in surgery.

I went up to the 6th floor of the Stanford building and checked in.

Waited some more. Finally gave some info to an account rep-type

person. Then back to the waiting room. Viola fell asleep in my

arms. Then this really nice Danish nurse called me and I went back.

She qasked me all kinds of health questions- did I smoke? have I had

a cold in the past week? all my health history... then she took

some blood. Viola slept through all of this. Then she hooked me up

to the EKG and I laid down for a few minutes and that was it. Oh

yeah, she took a few measurements- my waist, my legs... then I went

off to the restroom to pee in a cup.

Finally at 5:10 I rushed back down to Rabkin's office. They were

waiting for me.

At last, I got to meet the man! He read through my chart, asked me a

few questions and then we discussed the surgery. We talked about

breastfeeding since this was a concern I had. He assured me that

once I was off the antibiotics there shouldn't be any problem at all

with breastfeeding. I also said I didn't want to die and he told me

he had only ever had three patients die and that they were all open

and had prior health problems that contributed to their

complications. He said he wouldn't even be there if he thought that

this might not be a good choice for me. Of course, he followed that

up by saying the surgery is major and serious and he's not God...

Barbara gave me my pillow and Dr. Rabkin gave me my perscriptions to

have filled at the pharmacy and off I went. Parking cost $13.50

since I was there from 1:20 to almost 6pm.

Even though I sent much of the day waiting, I did get to talk to

Elaine quite a bit and boy, is she a sweetheart. She is a post-op

herself, also. I also met Joanie who is working on the insurance and

she was really sweet, as well.

All in all a tiring but good day and now it s all over with and I

just have to get on with my surgery which will be on Friday at 3:20

pm.

Thats all for now!!

Amy

Fremont, CA

Pre-Op July 6th!!

Rabkin/Jossart

BMI 46