Dave,
Well tomorrow is your turn. Just wanted to know I and all your friends out here will be praying and pulling for you.
I trust your procedure will be a bit like mine. You just gotta relax as best you can and trust the surgeons, nurses and all the other folks to get you through. They are well trained and incredibly skilled at what they do.
Don?t be afraid to ask for pain pills and happy pills. Push the buttons on the morphine line. By the way takes about 5 min to kick in and you should time things they want to do with you with the five minute rule in mind. Also tell them that you want the foly catheter put in after you are knocked out. They told me the doctors want it in before they take you downstairs. I said no way, you wait and they did.
Make sure you tell them if you had any alcohol in the last 48 hours. I had a nice bottle of chardonnay and it is important they know this.
The last thing I remembered was the anesthesiologist talking to me. I told him I really want the trach out my throat as soon as possible, he said they would do everything they could in that regard. He then asked me if I had any additional questions and I said no just do a good job. Next thing I knew it was over, the tube was out and I was on the way to ICU. Whole process was about 2.5 hours.
So we will be thinking of you and praying for you. Go in there with a positive attitude and you will be fine.
Walter
