[SarJen01]

Grrrr! I hear you. You have to manage your own health care these days. I've hand delievered more than a few forms, letters and test results over the past few years.

The hospital will call you about 15 days before your surgery to set up an appointment that should be about 10 days before surgery. A few days before your appointment someone will call you and ask you a bunch of questions over the phone. (Have all your prescription/vitamin info handy) This takes about 15 minutes.

For the appointment you need to bring the form that O'Malley's office gave you when your surgery was scheduled. It should have been in an evelope labeled "pre-op". The pre-op is a no brainer. Bring a book to read because it's mostly waiting. You'll be seen by 3 people: 1 - a tech who will do an ekg and a blood draw. 2 - A PA who will go through all the questions you were asked over the phone and who will give you a very quick high level physical (heart, lungs, pulse, skin inspection), 3- a nurse who will go over the instructions for the day of surgery. It took about 1.5 hours. Most of it was waiting. :-)

I've had to stop taking Prednisone and boy am I moving slowly this week! Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. Trip over dust. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.