Eating My Way Through Seattle - The Night Before Day One

photo by Natalia Tsouklava.

This ship is now leaving the port.

As I approach tomorrow I have to look back at where this all started, back in July, when we first heard about LVRS surgery. At that time we actually thought that LVRS would be occurring shortly after we were told about it. Then we found out that I would need to be Graduate from Pulmonary Rehabilitation. After I graduated from rehab, we thought we’d be hearing from the surgeons rather quickly, but things work the way things work, and the ball didn’t get rolling until February. I actually think this is better because we didn’t have to worry about any inclement weather like freak snowstorms (like that one last week, for example).

But here we are, and tomorrow I roll into surgery ready or not, no turning back now. I have showered with the specialized surgical soap that the nurse gave me, so surgery is ON.

We spent the day at the hospital having blood draws, pre-op appointments, including that soap mentioned above, to shower with tonight and again in the morning prior to coming in. I also had another series of CTscans this morning. Tomorrow check-in is at 8:15 and they will be shooting me in the spine with an epidural for pain management, which I will be using for a while after surgery. I probably won’t be doing too much tomorrow other than groaning and getting pushed, prodded, gauged, metered, and "temped." But tomorrow is "Day One!!!!" Yay!!!!

The hospital will remember us, as the ones that will stink up the whole ward with Indian food! They all know that we plan to be having it for dinner (hubby will be bringing it in as soon as I feel up to it!).

It's a good thing they serve Indian curry in the hospital cafe, so they shouldn't be too surprised to have the scent up in the ward at times.

We spent last night and tonight eating at a great Italian sub sandwich shop called Sarducci’s that also serves crepes, a discovery we made in the university district.

They even bake their own bread daily and all of their sandwiches are made from it. Last night I had an oven heated Italian Sub and hubby had a meatball sandwich. It was heaven on wheels for both of us, especially since our favorite Italian sub shop went out of business at home.

Today at the hospital we were told that I should eat a dinner of good protein tonight, and then of course, no food after 11:00 pm tonight.

So rather than eat extremely spicy food from an Indian restaurant, we decided to go back to Sarducci’s again and try different sandwiches, saving the Indian food for after the surgery. This way, we could also get some of those great looking homemade crepes for dessert.

That was the ticket! Hubs had a Hot Pastrami sandwich and I had a French Dip; and from him, all I heard were a couple of mm- mm’s and a growl when I got too close. My beef dip was very good, but I think I preferred the Hot Italian sub I chose last night better.

Our dessert crepes both have strawberries, his with ice cream and mine with whipping cream, both have chocolate syrup dribbled all over and mine also has sliced almonds. (I also got a growl when I got too close to his crepe, so I kept my distance and watched him chow down on what looked to be a delectable dessert).

Now, it is about 8:30pm, and I am going to finish this post and start thawing my crepe (we brought them back and immediately froze them to keep them from getting too soggy) and then I am going to welcome in “Day One 2012 with style and strawberries, almonds, chocolate, and whipped cream on a crepe, and tomorrow life for me begins again.

By lunchtime tomorrow I should, be done, and all hosed up, learning how to breathe again, ready to kick up my heels once more!

Tomorrow, part 1 of The Journey begins!

We leave tomorrow for our trip to Seattle. We figure that if we leave around midday we should arrive in Seattle around dusk providing the highways are clear, unobstructed and accident free.

We are staying overnight in one of the University of Washington Medical Center's Hospitality Houses, which is a beautiful old looking brick building located adjacent to the Hospital Complex, so that is perfect.

They are extending us a great rate and Danny will probably be putting in for a room there when I go in, if it all works out well. That is a big relief me too. However, I will have to climb a flight of stairs because they had no room on the 1st floor available. Luckily, the woman told Danny that it is only 7 steps and then a riser, before the second set of 7 steps, so I can stop halfway to regain myself if necessary.

We have the room for one night, and early Monday morning about 7:30, we'll be leaving to go check me in for my testing.

My first test of the day: The Pulmonary Perfusion Test also known as the Ventilation Perfusion Scan or VQ Scan, where radioactive isotopes are injected into my my veins or I will inhale them into my lungs and then images will be scanned of them.

After the Lung Perfusion test, I am off to the next one, the "full-on" pulmonary function test, in the glass booth, ugh, where they'll seal me in glass, pinch off my nostrils while having a mouthpiece in my mouth and start by having me blow my guts out, suck air in, blow some more, then do things like cut my air off completely while I am sucking air in, blast air directly into my lungs to completely fill them (a very weird thing to feel when you consider that we do not inhale completely filling our lungs when we normally breathe without any disease present). These tests usually cause my skin color to change and flush through the whole warm scale of the color palette almost completely over the threshold not stopping the purple range until it just meets blue.

I have never met a person that enjoys these tests. They hurt soul deep.

But recovery is speedy and complete, especially once O2 is applied, and that test takes only about an hour or so, and it will include a test for arterial blood gas. Sheesh...

~*~*~*~

After that, we get a lunch break but I have been advised not to eat too much because after lunch, I am off to the Exercise Bike Stress Test directly after eating.

This is the one test of which I am the most leery. I do not like to induce movement-related shortness of breath, and every bit of my subconscious being screams out to naturally avoid this, or I will succumb. I won't of course; and even if I did, I am in the right place to be succumbing, they can slap me onto a gurney and plug me into whatever they plug people into to revive them.

I have recently received some information regarding this test thanks to another friend, Karen who will be going through her lung perfusion test on Monday, only she'll be in Alpena, MI. She is also a hairdresser with a very, very similar situation as me, and she is also a likely candidate for LVRS. They do their screening a little differently, but the end result seems to be the same: Surgery, at one of the great University Centers positioned across the country for people like us. These Centers are specifically set up for Transplants and things like LVRS and related surgeries. Bless them!

OK, After the exercise bike test, it is off to a blood draw (pre-op?) and they will do the nicotine test.

Finally, at 2:30pm, we will meet with the surgeon and team and consult with them and the other people present, case mgr etc. I am hoping that this is where we will learn about the date of surgery.

After that, we get in the car and head directly for Weinerschnitzel, I-5 and our southerly route home.

Don't forget, I will be watching for the Albany off ramp, and the Calapooia Brewing Co. (Danny has the Mapquest already completed), and the empty "deposit" bottles will be in the car ready to exchange.

I can already envision myself in the front seat of the car, excitedly pointing the way, a chilidog half-hanging out of my mouth, Danny rolling his eyes back into his head and ready by then, to pinch my oxygen line shut, when I start saying something like "oh, you're missing the turnoff!"

Yup, I am definitely reward driven.

Until later, then....
Wish me luck on that darned bicycle test, so that I will fall right into the center of their required results needed.

Oh yes, one more thing, did I mention that I am not allowed to take any of my COPD and lung meds before I start my testing, so I am going at it a la naturelle.

The Countdown

I find myself at a lack of words right now

..and that doesn't happen very often.

What this means is that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, because I just found out that I am going to Seattle on Mar 5^th, for the day long testing.

The countdown to bigger things has begun....

Day One draws near.