PART 3 - SURGERIES

Back to my saga. My surgery was scheduled for March 19 in Sioux Falls. BUT. . . before then, the day before in fact, I had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon! This was on the day that I had to be on clear liquid diet only - all day.

My appointment had been moved up from 1:30 to 11:30, and they want you to be there 20 minutes early. I arrived shortly after 11 and checked in, then waited, and waited, and waited. There were people waiting that had appointments ahead of mine and still waiting. Finally at 12:30 a nurse came to the waiting area and said the doctor was in surgery and not sure how much longer. She hoped to start taking people back at 1:00! So everyone waited some more, and a few went to the cafeteria for lunch. Shortly after 1:00 she finally started calling people back and I got in the exam room at 1:30, my original appointment time!!

The nurse took the usual information and said the doctor would be in shortly, and I waited . . . . and waited . . . . and waited. Around 2:10 the doctor opened the door but did not come in. He said he was called back to surgery but it would only take a few minutes, so I waited some more. He finally came in at 2:30.

He did say he would do a knee replacement but I am a high risk patient with greater risk of infection in a long scar, prone to blood clots, harder recovery and rehab. And no guarantee that the glue would set properly. Not encouraging at all, but I expected something like that. Then I had to drop the bomb and tell him that I had recently been diagnosed with cancer and was having surgery the following day, so I would not be able to schedule knee surgery for awhile. He said he wouldn't do it for at least 6 months after this surgery, which brings us close to my granddaughter's wedding and I am not doing knee surgery just before that, so it might be a year from now. At least that gives me more time to try to lose more weight and not be such a high risk patient.

I got all my questions answered, and finally got home at 3:00. What an exhausting day of doing nothing but sit and wait for hours.

Part 4 coming up. . .