If I die before I wake...

It is the morning of my surgery. I didn't sleep well-my heart was pounding. Maybe my thyroid level is too high. I also have a slightly raw throat but I don't want anything to get in the way of having this terrible thing removed.

Shanna, Oliver, Steve and I went to WCC for their "French" lunch. Usually it is good there but not yesterday. Our waitress was horrible making us wait for everything while we had an impatient baby with us and whined when we complained that we didn't have water after the 2nd request that they were short-staffed and she was doing the best she could.

I then went for my pre-op meeting which was over an hour late driving me crazy as it was going to make me late for the radionuclide scan. I tried to eliminate some of the steps so I wouldn't be so late. They said I could arrange to have the chest x-ray later as they were going to do the surgery regardless of it. The chest x-ray is just to check for metateses. They did an EKG, blood work, went over all these consent papers including donating my tumor to science. "no you won't get any benefit from it but the community at large would.' When I finally got to the hospital half hour late, they said they didn't have my requistions so that was going to take a while. I asked if I could go have my x-ray? Sure just down the hall. When I got to the place he told me to, it said GI radiology. The clerk said I would have to go to Taubman-which was far away. They sent me here. Well this is for inpatients and I don't know if I could fit you in. How long will this take as I am an hour late for nuclear medicine? They will wait for you.

I didn't have to wait long but had to put these stupid stickers on my nipples so they wouldn't be confused for tumors. Later the nuclear medicine guy was puzzled why I had this strange thing on my nipple. He gave me 3 injections of unspecified radioactive tracer into my breasts. It didn't feel good. It took 3 hours to travel to my nodes. We were free to leave and return. We went to Happy hour at Cafe Habana and shared a pitcher of Cuban sangria and had dinner. Later Shanna read that I am not supposed to drink alcohol 24 hours of having surgery. This point they didn't stress. I was told that all jewelry and makeup would have to be gone, which was a problem removing my one ring with my fat, swollen fingers. Also all nail polish but it is staying on my toes. They said I am to have a thorough shower at night with antibacterial soap followed by one in the morning but they will have to live with the one shower. The sangria probably wasn't a good idea for Steve as it made him extra spacy. When I went back for the trace, I had to have 2 scans in which I couldn't move that lasted 5 minutes apiece. He kept calling my celll phone repeatedly oblivious to the fact that I was incapacitated. In the first scan, I needed to have both arms behind my head. I could feel that I still am not completely recovered from my broken arm as that was difficult. But my nodes were lit up so they will know which ones to take today.