Day of Medical Tests

I spent the morning doing tests in preparation for the surgery.

It was quite painless and I was amazed at how they had it all arranged where I just went from one place to the next to the next for tests.

It all started at 7am with lab work (blood and urine) sample.

At 7:30 I went to have an ultrasound on my abdomen. That lasted for 45 minutes. They got all of my organs from every possible angle. On my back, on my sides, on my side angled half way toward on my back etc... that was the worst part. Uncomfortable and also the wand hurt sometimes as they had to dig past the weight to be able to see. but, not too bad.

Next I had a chest xray. That took all of about 2 minutes... step up to a machine, raise my arms and snap. Turn to a side raise arms and snap. Finished!

Next I went for a series of lung and heart tests. These were absolutely fascinating. I had to breath in certain patterns into a machine that was testing my lung capacity and other items. for example I had to take four regular breaths and then a really sharp inhale and exhale as hard as I could like I was blowing a dart gun and then keep exhaling for 5. All of this was charted and graphed. Overall my lungs were at about 97% of what they should be so that is great news. This was about 30 minutes of testing.

I also had an EKG, it was just to lay down on a chaise lounge and they put the ekg stickers all over me and then I had to do some breathing and holding my breath. That only took about 2 minutes.

then I was done. I already have had the other required testing, colonoscopy and endoscopy and psychological eval.

My next steps are:

Wednesday 1/27 I go to a 4 hour nutrition class that teaches me all about pre and post op diet as well as ongoing nutrition. It should be very interesting.
Friday 1/29 I have an appointment with an internal medicine specialist for medical clearance for the surgery based on all of these tests
Wednesday 2/17 I start the clear liquid diet
Monday 2/22 I have my final appointment with my surgeon
Tuesday 3/2 is my surgery.