Tom's Journal

Today my wife and I spent 6 hours at Kaiser going through all the hoops and procedures prior to My Monday mitral valve repair. Wow! The "minimally invasive" surgery that had been explained for the last 2 months suddenly turned into a major event, with pages and pages of pre and post op instructions and limitations, new procedures, and on and on and on. Lots of conflicting descriptions from the Physician Assistant, Anesthesiologist, and nurse and even the hospital administration. I thought I knew what to expect, and now there is a huge range of expectations (expected 3 to 5 days in hospital, now I should expect 3 days to NINE days in hospital for example) and procedures to expect. The good news: I will enter the OR fully awake, will be given a light sedative, and wake up in ICU. Constant use of the spirometer and walking are my ticket out. It's now time to Rock and Roll friends!