First set of appointments over!

It turned out to be a long day today. 

It started out by a visit to the office of the Hotel complex.  I wanted to request a new television for our room.  I know, I know.  They don't DO that kind of thing.  But here's my deal:  they said they would put me in a room with a new TV.  They didn't.  They put us in their worst room, if the others we've seen were any indication.  We got to choose our new room, which was nice, but no new TV.  So I thought I'd ask the Front Desk person.

She said "No".  Quoted policy at me.  I gave her my best retort.  Then the Manager came out and got MAD at me for giving her front desk person a hard time.  I hadn't raised my voice or been anything other than courteous.  I WAS persistent... I will give you that.  Anyway, I got angry at the lack of reciprocal courtesy and... well, I'll be surprised if I have ANY television in my room tomorrow.

After the office visit, Melissa and I trekked over to the hospital for a 1 p.m. appointment with my neurosurgeon.  He re-explained my procedure from his perspective.  He will be performing a bifrontal craniotomy to 1.expose the excision site, 2.provide bone for the craniofacial guy to reconstruct, and 3.to cranialize the frontal sinuses (remove them).  After the surgery I will go to recovery and then to ICU where I will stay for a minimum of three days (per the neurosurgeon).  At some point I will be discharged, returned to my room, where I can only sit on a straight back chair, or lay flat on a bed with my head propped up on a minimum of two pillows.  That will be fun.

At 2:30 p.m. I headed down to Radiology and had an MRI performed.  This is a special MRI that produces data that can be fed into a computer system much like a GPS that maps locations in the geography of the brain.  I am imagining this computer-driven set of arms that comes down from the ceiling of the operatory and, guided by imaging data, starts automatically excising bone tissue based on pre-determined cuts and measurements.  I hope they put my head under it the right way.  (This machine does not really exist, dear readers, except in my imagination... but then again, what do I know?   Maybe it does.)

The procedure started about 3:15 p.m.  Everyone was nice, friendly, and polite.  The MRI tech came in to deliver the contrast and HE gets an F for the day.  His skill with a needle was nothing if not inventive.  Finally, at about 4:30 Melissa and I left and went shopping.

While out at Target, I received a call from the Radiology Department asking if I could come back in for MORE images.  It appears they did not get the right type of filter settings applied for the GPS machine-thingy.  So we drove BACK to the hospital, where I had another hour's worth of images taken.  We finally left about 7:30 p.m. and got back to our room.  I had them make me a copy of the images and put it on disk, but they don't look any better than the others.  Here is an example:

Ok, that's it for me for tonight.  Thank you so much for tuning in. 

The next post will be about insurance claims... I promise!!!! (For those of you who need sleeping pills)