1 week post-op. The diary of a banded woman

My one week anniversary! Woohoo! I'll never forget March 23rd. That day didn't come off without a hitch. I travelled from a Northeastern point of PA to Smithtown, LI, NY. Mapquest and GPS speaking , it's a 2hr 30min drive. In reality, it's about a 3-4 hour trip and I don't know what I was thinking. I had to make sure that our 5 children were secured in school and daycare before we headed out. 3 of my children were dropped off at a neighbor's house at 6:45 am. They don't normally wake up until 7. My 2 babies were safe and secure at daycare by 7. They had no idea why they were so tired, bless their hearts. No one knew about my surgery, except my hubby and 2 of my friends. Everyone thought I was at court as a witness for a medical case.... I've even had to write down my stories on my iphone calendar to keep track of what I told who. I've worked so hard at keeping my secret because I come from a long line of judgemental family members and a circle of friends who like to talk. I don't like to be the object of anyones stories. Besides, this is for me, not for them.

My appointment was set for 10:30 arrival with an 11:30 scheduled surgery. HA! Have you ever driven into NYC on a Monday morning during rush hour??? Needless to say, I got there late, cursing my head off the whole way, hitting traffic in place I NEVER hit traffic in the entire 6 months I was going for consults and tests and appointments and procedures and appointments... you get the picture. Poor planning on my part. What I should have done was left the night before, spent the night at my parents house in Brooklyn and drove from there. The problem was that I needed a driver for the ride home, and there was no one to watch my children but my DH. I couldn't ask anyone to take the kids earlier than 6:45, because it would have been asking for too much. I did what I had to do!

I got to ambulatory surgery at nearly 11 and I was all freaked out that they would turn me away. Dr. Nick even had one of the nurses call me at 8:30 to find out if I could come in earlier because he was running early. DAMN! I could have gone in earlier. They were so nice in ambulatory. They took me in and did all the pre-op stuff they were supposed to do. I saw nurses and techs and support group leaders and nutritionists and the nurse anethesist and anethesiologist.