Tuesday morning September 13th I get to see the boys onto the bus, one of those small pleasures that I never get to do because I’m at work. After my wife got ready she drove me into work. I made the attempt to stay as busy as possible; I really didn’t manage to get much work done. I spent most of the time surfing the web, sorry Tim (my boss), my head really wasn’t in the right pace to be doing work. Anyways, I’m sure all of the code I would have produced then would have probably been junk!

Around 1:30 my coworker Jeff drove me to the New England Baptist Hospital. I had to bring my post surgical brace with me as well as my Ice Man (it looks like a cooler that circulates cold water through a cuff, a supper-dooper ice pack). I registered and got set-up in the pre-surgical room, both processes went very fast. I then proceeded to wait until around 3:30.

While at pre-surgery I had my IV put into my right hand. I am always nervous about getting IVs. When a was a small child I hit my head and had to go to the hospital and get an IV, the nurse did an awful job and made a pin cushion of my arm. I few years later when I had my appendix out they missed the vein with the IV and made my arm swell up. The nurse did a perfect job with the IV.

I met with a physical therapist (PT) while I was waiting. He was under the impression that I was going home after the surgery. I explained that I thought I was gong to be staying over night due to “Pain Management”. Regardless he wanted to show me the proper way to use crutches as well as go up and down stars with my post surgical brace on.

I then met with a slew of nurses, I cannot remember what all of their names were, what their actual positions were and what they all wanted. They pretty much asked all of the same questions, what is my name, what am I having done and to what knee, when was the last time you ate, did you take any medications, has the doctor seen you yet and has he signed your leg (and was it the right leg), have you signed the anesthesia release? I know one of the nurses I met was the surgical nurse, she said I would not remember her, funny, she was right, but then I didn’t remember any of them. One of the other nurses was in charge of shaving my knee.

In between seeing all of the nurses Dr. Richmond’s fellow came to see me, I cannot remember his name. He went over all of the same questions as well as briefly go over the procedure again. Next came the anesthesiologist, again asking all of the same questions as well as “have you ever had any issues while being under aesthesia?” The answer was no. He also explained (and recommended) that they could also give me a block to my left leg. It will greatly help with the pain following the surgery. If after the surgery I didn’t want it that would be fine but he wanted me to sign off on it and I did.

The next doctor that came to visit me was Dr. Richmond. As he walked into the pre-surgical area he was greeted by a hug from one of the nurses. I found out that he had just recently done knee surgery on her brother. A few of the nurses also came up to me and told me that I was very lucky having him and that he was very good. Regardless of how true or not it was it made me feel good. Again, we went over all of the same questions. I got another description of the procedure I am about to go through. I found out that he decided to graft my ligament with one from a donor (a cadaver), I don’ know why he made that change but at the time I really didn’t care and I trust his judgment. I’ll have to ask him at my next visit. The last person I met with before one of the nurses wheeled me into surgery was a student anesthesiologist. He seemed nervous, just the impression I got, it’s probably good he is still a student.

It was about 3:45 when the nurse started to wheel me into surgery. She asked me where I would like on go on vacation because I won a trip to anywhere. We had this little conversation about whether to go to Europe or to an Island. I was saying that my wife would enjoy an Island more than Europe. She explained that on this trip my wife would actually enjoy whatever I made as my choice. So off to Ireland, Scotland and Germany for me! On the way to the Operating Room (OR) they gave me something that started to knock me right out. I remember getting to he operating room and moving over to the operating table and that is about it.