Sunday, November 24, 2013

Pre-Op Testing

Well, I went to my regular GP this week to get my pre-op physical and blood testing done.  I should have written down what blood tests were ordered, but my brain was elsewhere.  I had a regular physical...he listened to my breathing, took my blood pressure, my weight, looked in my ears and throat...nothing invasive at all.  After all that, I had my blood drawn by the blood lady.  That's one of those nice perks about my doctor's office...they have their own Quest Labs person there so you can have a little one stop shopping.

The blood draw is the only invasive test before my procedure.  I made sure to drink a lot of water the day before and the day of, to insure that the blood draw would go quicker.  I'm one of those people who has non-cooperating veins, so anything I can do to help the lab people out, I do.  I was lucky and she got me in one stick.

On a related note...when I had to have my IV put in right before my last ankle surgery, the hospital lab lady got some warm blankets and placed them on both of my arms...then checked my veins several minutes later.  This helped my veins come to the surface more (or something like that) and she was able to get my IV line done in one stick...this is the first time I've EVER had an IV done in one stick.   I think I was stuck five times before one of my knee surgeries...that was 5 times and 3 different people doing the sticking.  My rule is that each person gets two tries--then they're done.

Back to pre-op testing....

This is the same testing as last time.  The only other thing I had done before my last surgery was have a bunch of x-rays taken of both ankles.  I had this done at my first visit with my orthopedist.   I didn't have repeat x-rays this time, probably because the others are only 6 months old and I had already discussed, and agreed, with my doc about having replacements on both ankles.  It was a matter of which one did I want to do first...and honestly, I randomly picked...they were both shit.

Has anyone else had similar experiences before surgery? 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment