Well, here we are. May 4, 2022. The day my life changes.
Surgery day.
Gastic Bypass.
I feel okay. I thought I’d be shaking in my boots right now, but I feel more anxious about just getting it over with. It’s time to just move on to the next phase. This has been hanging over my head to various degrees since last Fall. It all became real near the end of January, and the actual work started in early February. I think I just want to move on.
Let’s just do it.
In the immortal words of one of the immortal guys in The Highlander, time has almost caught us, my friend(s).
12 hours from now I’ll be in the hospital trying to bottle up my freak out feelings like a good Irish-American stereotype. The 10:00 check in is a little later than I was expecting so I was able to punt a couple of little things from my to do list until the morning.
I did the most important things though. I reached out to, or was contacted by, all of the people I wanted to talk to today. Both kids called me. We had good video calls with both of them. I was very happy to hear from them.
Now I’m sitting up in bed. I was worried I’d be too nervous to sleep, but now that I’m here I’m pretty beat. I’ll sleep okay. I might get some Marvel movie time in first though. I’m still on Eternals.
I go under the knife at noon tomorrow. I’ll probably post 20 times before then, and I’ll definitely watch the MoonKnight season (series?) finale too.
I just got a call from the hospital.
Check in is at 10:00am tomorrow.
Surgery is at noon.
Holy shit balls!
Fuck Fuckity Fuck Fuck Fuck!
This is happening!
It’s almost 2:00pm and I am just getting to lunch now. When I say lunch, of course, I mean liquid lunch. I just had me a protein shake. Yummy. Will it still be yummy after tomorrow? Who the hell knows!
3.5 hours left in my work day and then I go on leave for a month. I am having a tough time wrapping my brain around that. A whole month away from work is just… weird.
It’s really loud in my yard right now. There’s a huge ass riding lawn mower tearing around like a madman. I forgot we booked a lawn service this year. It’s a good thing because we kinda don’t have a lawn mower of our own at the moment, and for the next month or so I am going to be no good to anyone.
The Bruins lost game one last night. Game two is tomorrow. I am guessing I won’t be terribly interested in watching. You know, other stuff going on.
Still no phone call telling me when to show up tomorrow. They said to expect the call between 3:00 and 8:00pm, so I am not worried… yet.
When am I going to be able to watch MoonKnight tomorrow? Do you think Disney+ will let me see it today? No? Even if I ask Mickey Mouse directly? No? Aww.
Musiciansfriend is going to deliver a new delay pedal tomorrow. I don’t expect to be able to play through it right away. You know how it is, right?
My wife Jennifer is my rock. I just wanted to share that. I couldn’t do any of this without her. She’s amazing and I am so in love with her.
What else… I don’t know. I am sure I had a reason to start typing this and I am equally sure that nothing I’ve written here has anything to do with whatever that reason was. I know that, even though I really don’t know what the reason I started this actually is. My 51st birthday is this weekend. I’d tell you all not to get old, but the alternative is really a lot worse so I won’t.
To do list for tonight:
My friends Larry and Mike have already gotten in touch. I got a text from Larry this morning wishing me luck. Last night I got a call from Mike. He’s been through this already and he gave me some advice for the recovery.
They told me not to wear any jewelry tomorrow. That means no wedding ring and no watch. I’m not sure what to do with my glasses. Maybe I’ll bring the case and ask Jen to hold on to them for me.
I’m not freaking out. Not really. I think I just want it to be over with so I can move on to the next stage. As scary as all of this is, it’s a good thing and I will have no regrets.
Okay, back to work for the home stretch.
Hello and welcome to Tuesday May 3, 2022. The last full day with my stomach and small intestine working in their DNA designed manner.
At some point tomorrow my digestive system will have an entirely new workflow.
I’m on my pre-op liquid diet and I’m literally afraid to do anything. They told me I can have all the protein shakes I want today, but should I? What if a bit of powder doesn’t dissolve right and it acts like food and sits in my stomach and they have to postpone?
Right. Relax, red head. Go drink a shake, you paranoid doofus.
Jen and I had dinner together. We also had dessert. I had more dessert than I’m willing to admit, but I wasn’t too bad. Just mildly bad.
The shit is about to get really real. It’s 9:00pm. In three hours my liquids-only diet starts. 24 hours after that I’ll be fasting until the surgery.
I’ll find out tomorrow afternoon when the start time will be. I’m hoping earlier rather than later. I want to get it over with, you know?
Be prepared for frequent, nervous posts followed by a black out sometime on Wednesday. I don’t want to try to post anything while I’m goofed up on anesthetic, you know?
Two days. Panicking in so many subtle ways.
I have prepared The Last Supper*.
*At least the last supper before the liquid diet starts at midnight.
Yup. I’m starting to freak out.
Tonight at midnight I officially switch to a liquid diet. I can still have protein shakes with fat free milk, so that will likely substitute for my meals. The hospital gave me a couple of bottles of something that should help with nausea. I will drink one at 6:00pm and another at 9:00pm. There is a third bottle but I don’t know exactly when to have that yet. I will get a call sometime tomorrow afternoon giving me the scheduled time for the surgery and what time I should arrive and all that. The third bottle of stuff will be taken three hours before the surgery.
Then on Wednesday the shit will hit the fan and everything I do will be different from then on. The thing that I currently refer to as my stomach will be referred to as the pouch, and my goal in life will be to protect the pouch. Also my goals for the first week or two will be to stay hydrated and to avoid blood clots.
I can do that. I just don’t know what it’s going to feel like yet.
Yup. I’m starting to freak out.
Jen and I are sitting in the living room (the old one, not the new one) and I’m letting my mind wander.
Where is it wandering to?
Where do you think?
I went for my pre-surgery Covid PCR test today. I got an email saying that I had a new entry in my patient portal. I don’t speak hospital but I think it says the results were negative.
So what’s the significance of that? Apart from not having Covid, of course.
That was the last thing I had to do before the surgery. The next step is literally getting a call from the hospital telling me what time to show up.
I’m not freaking out per se. Well… not exactly. I am, but I’m okay with it. Really it’s just getting hard to focus on anything else. I’ll be doing one thing and about a third of my thought process is on my weight and the surgery instead of what I’m doing. I think that counts as a minor freak out.
Overall I feel like I’m keeping my shit together, but I’m pretty sure the next two days at work are going to be a struggle.
I’m at a walk in clinic for my pre-surgery Covid test.
At least I thought it was going to be a walk in clinic. This place is huge, and there are 17 people in the waiting room. There are only 22 seats, so social distance is a fucking joke here.
Oh good, person number 18 just walked in.
Inside the Red Head's Head 