Pre-Surgery Rushing Around

My husband and I traveled to San Francisco Thursday night and stayed in a hotel to do the pre-op testing the next day. I had to get labs drawn, an echocardiogram, chest X-ray.

Finding a hotel was tough. There was a conference there that weekend so most were already full. We were lucky to find this one.

There was even a complimentary breakfast.

I rushed around the hospital all day and then had an appointment at the surgeon's office. They gave me prescriptions to fill and I had to watch another informational video. We ended up having to travel all the way back to Sacramento that day to get everything ready. I would have to come back later that night and start getting prepared as they wanted me on a bowel prep and a liquid diet.

We booked hotels for two weeks stay in San Francisco. 4-5 days was the estimated hospital stay. We reserved a hotel suite for the second week with an ocean view. I figured why not rest in style?

I did have a "last meal"as many having surgery do. It wasn't planned, and it wasn't what I would have chosen as a last meal. We were rushing around trying to get back into the city and were starving, so we made a stop...

After we ate, we got back on the road. We ran into some traffic.

But we finally made it to the new hotel.

It was hard trying to navigate San Francisco in a wheelchair but we made it. The room was nice and had a cozy place to relax.

I didn't end up getting sleep that night, though. Not just because of nerves but because of the guests next door. It sounded like they were having a frat party next door all night long. We found this evidence in the morning.

The front desk ended up moving us rooms. Of course this was the day I was to start nothing but liquids. I liked this place, not just because they had a mini fridge and microwave but because it was nice. I had brought some sugar free popsicles, jello, gatorade, water, and chicken broth.

I also had to do a bowel prep. This was not fun and did not taste like lemon, like it said.

I think they put "lemon flavor" on it just to make the patient feel better about taking it. It tasted so horrible I thought I was going to vomit. And right after I started taking it, I thought it would take a little while before the urge to go to the bathroom happened. Nope.

All of a sudden it was happening. I couldn't stop it. I bolted to the bathroom. I had never had the sudden urge to go like that before, even when I'd had food poisoning! I literally had to park myself on the toilet for the rest of the day. There were too many close calls. The last thing I wanted to happen was have an accident on the floor, or worse, in my pants, with no access to a washer/dryer. No way I would send that out for dry cleaning! My husband was nice enough to bring me the drinks in the bathroom. I'm just glad he didn't need to use the facilities while it was "happening."