Getting ready? Getting fret-ty.

Knee-minus-3 days, Sunday 26-Sep-2004:
Three days to go, so I packed my bag for hospital. I made a run to the local libraries, and brought home 3 shopping bags of books to read during recovery (1/3 technical, 2/3 novels).

I fretted over general versus epidural anesthesia, and called the surgeon’s assistant. She said “We use epidurals almost exclusively”. Well. That cleared that up easily enough.

I also fretted over having a Foley catheter inserted --- until I learned that the insertion typically occurs after anesthesia. “You won’t feel a thing, or even remember having it inserted”. Well, OK, I guess.

I watched web videos of TKR surgery. I looked at web images of TKRs, both in photo and graphics forms. I compared brands. I read NIH reports. I dug into the research literature about TKRs, about antibiotic prophylaxis, about DVT therapies.

And then, I just stopped. The surgery was scheduled. I had very high confidence in my surgeon, the practice he is part of, and our local hospital. I stopped preparing for the worst, and started trying to think about how to prepare for the best.