I went in for my pre-admission assessment and meeting with staff at the hospital today. It was a cold (3 degrees C), damp day. Traffic was very heavy and the Port Mann was congested as usual. We made it with about 30 minutes to spare and after finding a place to park made it into the pre-admission clinic area barely on time. With that began another battery of tests and interviews. First we met with someone from physio who gave me my very own red, heart-shaped pillow – which I understand will be my constant companion after surgery! Then I had another ECG done. After that we formally registered and then met with one of the pre-admission nurses to go over all of the paperwork. My height, and weight and BMI were all entered into the myriad of details they need to collect. Next we met with the anesthetist who took a leisurely time explaining all the things I could anticipate in regard to the surgery and the anesthetics. He gave us a brief rundown of all the needles, tubes, wires, probes and cannulas etc that I could expect to be attached to me or inserted into me for the surgery. Hmmmm…. He also answered any further questions we had very thoroughly.
After going to the lab for more blood work and the radiology department for yet another set of chest x-rays we were finally finished. Huddled under our big black umbrella we made our way back up to Columbia Street where we added some more money to our parking meter and then ordered enchilada platters at the Indian/Mexican food restaurant across the street from the hospital. That was just a little too spicy for me – just like the day of the angiogram when we went in for Indian curries. After lunch we wandered down to a little bakery and bought some coffee and cookies. We returned to our car and slowly made our way home.