Surgery

No, not THAT surgery—I wish…. That one is coming, hopefully within the next year or so, but the one I’m posting about here is altogether different.  I’m going in tomorrow at the crack of dawn (literally… have to check in at the hospital at 5:15 AM) for surgery on my cervical spine (neck area) as several of the vertebrae have been deteriorating for years, even after a laminoplasty two years ago back in Massachusetts, which did absolutely nothing to either correct or abate the problem.  

Anyway, all the while I’ve been on my transition journey, I’ve also been navigating this lingering health issue, and it has not been fun: initial recommendation from PCP; referral to orthopedic surgeon (OS); MRI; back to OS; CT and other X-rays; back to OS; recommendation for surgery; blood tests, EKG, more X-rays; COVID test and more blood work.  What a fucking nightmare.  And this morning, not 24 hours before my surgery is set to begin, I get a call from the OS’s office saying that Cigna wasn’t authorizing the procedure because they deemed it as unnecessary!  WTF?  “Have they not seen the MRI and the extent to which my spinal cord is pinched?!” I asked.  Fortunately, the OS was able to convince them it is, in fact, a very necessary procedure and we’re back on.  

Unfortunately, there was also a mix-up at the hospital and they needed to call me in this afternoon for more blood work.  I received this call while I was out for a walk—it was a beautiful day and I figured I’d take advantage of it, as I will be laid up for quite a bit after tomorrow—two and a half miles from home, it was 2:30 PM, and “oh, the lab closes at 4:30,” the woman said, so I had all of two hours to get home, get in my car, get to the hospital, and get this done.  Again, WTF?!  

Luckily, I decided not to go into the office (in Irvine, at least an hour away during rush hour), so it wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been… but really!  All of this doesn’t exactly portend a seamless procedure tomorrow, and I’m even more anxious about it now than ever. However, with all that I’ve been through and experienced recently, I know that I can choose to respond to this in a positive manner.  My surgeon is top-rated, and so (surprisingly) is the hospital.  I am in good health and will come through all of this just fine and maybe even better off than I went in.  It will all be over with tomorrow (a least the surgery) and then I will be in recovery mode, with Eric there to nurse me back to health.  

I got this.  We got this.

 

In closing, below are some pics I took on my walk earlier this afternoon, before I got the eleventh-hour call into the hospital for blood work and had to hightail it home.  I was noticing little signs of fall subtly making its way into Long Beach and wanted to capture what I saw.  This may be the last post for a while, depending on how I feel post-op...