At my pre-operative appointment today, I did the following:
- Met with admissions and established that I am willing to pay $5 per day for a private room, if available
- Gave a thorough medical history to a nurse practitioner by answering "no" a lot
- Had an overall health exam by the NP and got dizzy from taking deep breaths repeatedly
- Allowed the Chinese resident doctor to look in my ear even though she couldn't hold the otoscope correctly
- Gave a urine specimen
- Maintained consciousness while my blood was drawn
- Had electrodes attached to me for an EKG test
- Signed surgical consent forms
You know the drill: no food, drink, or medication after midnight the night before surgery. Well, I had never considered that the rule would apply to my insulin pump, so I was confused when he asked me what my plans were for the night before. I replied, "Uh, wear my pump until I get here?" Then he asked what would happen if I didn't use it, and I said, "You mean if I disconnected it from midnight to 5:30 am? My blood sugar would be really high because I wouldn't have had insulin for 5 hours." He looked concerned at that answer and said he would ask his boss. Needless to say, the NP got permission from the anesthesiologist for me to wear my insulin pump after midnight on the night before surgery.
(In the interest of full disclosure, this post was actually written on 2/3/09.)
