Surgery today

[Dave Ambrose]

I don't understand why private doctors are always late.

I can explain that one. When my wife was due with our first child, our OB wanted to see her after his associate sent her home. He already had two in labor. Shortly after we arrived, he had three in labor. He stuck with us for the next two days until our daughter was born.

After that, I never begrudged either cancellations, or my doctor's time off.

[pepperdrumstix]

I am with the other forum members wishing you a successful surgery. I have had 46 leg vein surgeries, 23 on each leg, in the last 3 years because of my circulation problems. The procedures I had are called EVLTs when they cut a small hole in your ankle and shove a fiber optic up that vein, some times as far as the groin, and "zap" it with a laser for about 12-15 seconds. Every one in the room has to wear thick sunglasses during the laser use. They remove the fiber optic and bandage you up and send you home with a pain med script. I can walk after the procedure but 1 to 2 days later it feels like I was kicked by a horse in the leg. Then I am down for a while. But the up-side is better circulation in my legs. Follow the doc's orders and you will be pleased with the results. You may be "down" for a while but the end result is worth it. Just think what it would be like if you didn't have these surgical procedures. I need to have 8 more starting Dec. 1st. My Dec. will be busy going to the doc's, painful and most of the month I will be "down" not able to move much or walk far. I can sit at my bench and build though. At least until my legs fall asleep from the reduced circulation in my veins till my body re-builds them to replace the destroyed ones.

My original problem was I was born with a mild form of polio, yes I am that old, and had surgery at one month of age and had full length casts on for a year. We all have our own medical problems but I can say these procedures worked for me. There will be some pain for a few days but they have nice pain meds now. Take care and don't get stressed out by the doc's busy schedule. They have emergencies too with other patients. I have had 5 procedures cancelled- rescheduled because my doc also does cardio-thoracic surgery. Hang in there and try to enjoy the time you can now spend relaxing- building. Just some advice from a fellow builder, since 1958, that has gone through something similar, over 45 times and soon to be over 50 times, and survived and got better. Patrick M