Well, THIS has been a real roller-coaster! (and thanks for the words of support)
I've had the same surgeon for the past almost 4 years now. He's the best as far as I'm concerned and has become as much a friend as "just" my doctor. A couple years ago, he was deployed to Iraq for a few months and upon his return, showed me videos of some of the cases he handled at a field hospital there. I won't go into detail, but he took piles of blown-up meat and somehow put it all back together to become a living, human form again. It was some incredible video that was shared with me in private.
Well, in preparation for this surgery, I met with him to go through all the pre-op stuff last month. I asked if there was ANY way I could avoid another hospital stay as I've had my fill of a hospital bed the past 5 years and would rather recover at home. He told me he had no problem doing this surgery as an out-patient, using a local anesthesia if that's what I wanted. I told him to "go for it"! The surgery was scheduled for Monday, 3/3. On Friday (2/28), I got a call from the VA letting me know my doc had been deployed to Afghanistan and they were rescheduling my surgery for today (with a different surgeon). Lynn and I got up at 5:30 am and were at the hospital by 8:00 am for the scheduled surgery at 8:30. So far, so good.
I get called into the operating room and my new doc is there studying my case as I walk in. He looked at me with that "are you nuts?" look on his face and asked to see my back. He looked at it, took a few pictures and went back to looking at my history on the computer. He then said there was NO WAY he'd do this procedure outside the main hospital operating room. He was concerned about controlling my pain level as well as possible bleeding and said the "minor surgery ward" was no place to be performing this procedure as there was too much risk involved ... especially with the pain I'd have to endure. I told him my doc and I had already discussed the procedure and this is what we'd agreed on, but he got deployed at the last minute and that's why I'm there now.
He then informed me my doc was supposed to be deployed the first of the month, but it had been postponed until the first of NEXT month ... and in fact, he's in the hospital right now! He told me he would reschedule my surgery for the main operating room and get back to me. Instead of leaving the hospital, Lynn and I headed down to my regular surgeon's office and met with his assistant, who tried to call him, but was unable to get through. She said once she contacts him, she'll get in touch with me. Not two minutes after walking in the door (at home), she called and said he was sorry about the mix-up ... when he was supposed to be deployed, they rescheduled all his surgeries ... THEN his orders were changed and blah, blah, blah.
He said if I'm still up to it, he'll do the procedure this coming Monday as we'd planned previously.
Here are my thoughts. I have all the faith in the world in my surgeon's abilities and trust him TOTALLY. He's more familiar with my case than anyone and has performed my last 9 (or 10?) surgeries. This morning, Lynn and I asked around about this new doctor and he was highly recommended by everyone we talked with ... the difference is, he has had no military experience in the field. MY doc, on the other hand, is capable of piecing bodies back together in a tent on an Afghan mountaintop while taking incoming mortar rounds! I have no problem trusting him with this procedure in a "minor surgery" operating room setting. I'm so accustomed to pain on a permanent basis, I don't think I'll have a problem getting sliced and diced with a bit of local anesthesia. Bleeding? I'm really not worried about this guy cutting something he shouldn't. I was fully prepared to "man-up"!
So ... it's off for today ... and on again for this coming Monday. Talk about a roller-coaster. I got psyched the first of the month ... I came down ... I got psyched again for today ... I'm coming back down ... now this weekend, I'll start the process all over again.
