Healthy and Sane (with notations)

Two weeks ago I went back to Seattle for my pre-surgery physical.  Side story:  My mom, who does NOT like to drive in Seattle or other large cities drove me there.  The night before we stayed in a hotel about a mile from the clinic so she wouldn't have to drive in the crazy traffic.  That evening we decided to go for a walk and see if we wanted to just walk to my appointment in the morning.  We went about two blocks and decided we had seen enough of Seattle on foot.  As much as we would like to not have to pay for parking we just didn't feel comfortable walking by ourselves.  It's not exactly the cleanest city either.  There was so much trash along the sidewalk it was quite disgusting.  So we turned around and went back to the hotel and decided to just drive to my appointments in the morning.

Relaxing in the lobby after our "walk" in Seattle

First I stopped by the labs early in the morning for blood work and an EKG in hopes that the results would be ready for my next appointment.  In the meantime we ventured out into Seattle again on foot.  Surely there had to be a Starbucks nearby, right?  We tried using the maps on our phones to follow the walking directions but were quite unsuccessful.  How are we supposed to know which way is East?  Finally the map figured out we couldn't follow those types of directions and started saying left and right instead.  We saw some beautiful old buildings on our morning walk though.  :) We finally asked the janitor at the clinic for directions.  Basically we just had to walk through the other side of the clinic and there was the "shopping" part of town.  We found a Starbucks in a grocery store and used my mom's gift card to order each of us a thick slice of banana bread and a strawberry smoothie.  We headed back to the clinic to read and wait for my next appointment.

All the labs hadn't  made it in when I went to my appointment with the internal medicine doctor.  Pending any strange results that might come back in my lab work he cleared me for surgery.  (The lab work did come in later that day and all is normal.)

Later that week was my 3 hour psych evaluation.  I actually really enjoy this appointment.  It didn't seem like 3 hours at all.  We talked for 1 hour. He loved that I started a blog.  I happily told him about my awesome support system; my family, friends and church members.  I already have play dates set up for my two younger children after I come home.  Truly amazing is how when I asked for help with meals for my family after surgery my calendar filled up in only 5 hours.  I felt so awkward asking but was so grateful for the feeling of love and support!  Thank you!  Next, I completed an evaluation on the computer which took almost another hour.  Then we discussed the results together for another hour. There were some very strange questions and some I just wasn't quite sure how to answer but mostly it was pretty simple.  Do you fear spiders? Yes.  Do you feel like killing someone?  No.  As we discussed the results it was pretty obvious that I am sane and have healthy coping skills to handle this surgery.  However, as I am already aware, I am a bit introverted (although I'm working really hard to overcome this).  His concern, which he made an notation of on my file, is making sure that I will speak up to get the help/pain relief/etc that I need.  I've come a long way in making sure my needs are met since I had my first baby 16 years ago.  Back then my IV came out of my vein and my arm began to swell as it filled with fluids.  My husband looked at it and said I needed to call the nurse.  I looked at it and said "It's okay.  I don't want to bother them."  I am determined to make my needs a priority...but I'll still be nice.