PRE-SURGERY NEEDS!

Well, the good news is the Hospital called me early today so I don't have to spend the weekend waiting for that call to come. After speaking with my doctor last night and now the nurse for pre-surgery this morning, I feel much less anxious and ready to face my surgery in the right frame of mind. I am reassured.

I have learned that it is necessary to be pro-active and make sure I make it very clear what my special needs are since I have had some bad experiences. My doctor is on top of it, and speaking with the pre-surgery nurse I explained some of the prior bad experiences and I feel good that things will go smoothly this time. This is my 12th surgery and it's one of the Top 100 Hospitals in the country so I have always felt very confident in going there, but we are always subject to the variables of human error and their level of caring. I now make sure they all know what to expect - I am in no way the normal patient and they need to understand that what they are going to see from me in post-op is way outside of their everyday experience. I think the nurse got it and I discussed it again with the doctor last night and he definitely remembers what happened last year and is geared to make sure all goes well this time around.

Becoming your own best advocate is something that many of us have to learn. Often we are nervous to speak up with medical personnel and really advocate for ourselves. One doctor I consulted with once, after seeing my reaction to the anesthesia he gave me, told me I was the worst patient he had ever had (and he's an anesthesiologist). He told me after seeing this, that his advice is to speak up, speak up loudly if necessary and if really necessary, forget about being nice! That was from a doctor!

My mother also taught me a lot about how to advocate for myself. She's done it for me many times; once even going to one of my doctor's offices and standing there for as long as it took to get the doctor to come out and talk to her!

So, the message is I hope everyone can learn to be pro-active, speak up for yourself when necessary and don't ever let medical personnel ignore you. We know our bodies and our medical history and if you believe you need to speak up, do it and don't feel bad about it!

As we often like to say, we are Warriors and we are tougher than we give ourselves credit for! Stand strong until you get what you need and your doctor or nurse or whoever, is really listening to you!