Wow, thank you all! Who knew so many people would still be paying attention after all this time. Thank you for all the well wishes, support, and comments.

By now we had a plan to do surgery to fix my detached retina, Joel was here, and I was starting to feel a little bit calmer and more optimistic. First, I had a long list of blood tests which I did on Sunday since it needed to be done before having anything to eat. I got the EKG done. I also figured out how to pay for things. The emergency department is close to the front door, and there are two cashiers. I wasn’t sure what gets paid where but people were nice about sending me to the correct one. They missed one of the lab tests, so the lab tech walked me up to the correct cashier so we could get that paid before she drew my blood. How nice is that?

I was also given the names of two internal medicine doctors, and I choose Dr Luz Visuette since I knew her from when she saw Joel’s mother years ago. I texted her a request and a copy of the referral and she gave me an appointment on Monday. I learned that you need to go to the circular desk down the hall and request your own lab results so you can take them yourself to your appointment.

How different is this? In the USA you don’t see any of your medical records unless your doctor or nurse is willing to show them to you. I remember when I was a new nurse, a patient wanted to see his chart. I took it to his room and we went through it section by section so I could explain everything we were looking at. Management was horrified that I would do such a thing and I got a huge scolding! Years later I was told I was nuts when I requested my own records to take to the doctor I would be seeing after we moved. He happened to be a friend and coworker, so he just handed me the records, but this is not what usually happens. Anyway, I digress….

I have never had such a thorough exam and evaluation by a doctor! She asked me lots of questions and checked me over from head to toe. She was not happy with my blood pressure so she sent my friend to the pharmacy for a pill. After a wait, it was better but she wasn’t totally satisfied so she sent me to the emergency room to wait for an hour and get it checked again. I had an Rx for another pill if it was still above her threshold, and orders to check it in another hour but thankfully it was fine and I was allowed to go home. She also thought I needed some additional lab tests to check for bleeding time and a few other things, so I was sent back to the lab. This was Monday

Tuesday I picked up all my lab results. My EKG had also been read by a cardiologist so I had this in hand as well. I returned to Dr Visuette as requested. She was happy with my blood pressure and everything else she saw, so she signed the permission for me to have the surgery. She also wrote a detailed report for the eye doctor, and included this with all my test results for me to take with me to surgery.

Next was the meeting with the anesthesiologist, Dr Bravo (around here, bravo means angry ha! Thankfully he wasn’t the least bit angry.) Ge gave me another checkup, reviewed the report from the doctor, the test results, and asked all the appropriate questions. The plan was local anesthetic with sedation. He said I would be out when the local was applied, sedated during the procedure, and I wouldn’t remember any of it.

So, here we were, ready to go. I paid for the surgery ($4000), and was told to show up at the surgery center at 7am Wednesday morning, freshly showered and dressed in comfortable clothing. I was given a detailed paper with the planned procedure and risks, the consent form I was to sign and bring with me. I also had a consent for the anesthesia.

Next, the actual surgery.