All my ?? answered...even the tattoo one!

I had my pre-op consultation yesterday. Had to be there at 9am and didn't get done until 5pm but WOW!!! I'm self-pay and because Michelle was so kind to refer me to Dr. Fallang in Dayton thats who I'm going to. He is so thorough! Sitting in a dark room looking at slides for 5 hours was challenging to keep the eyes open for both hubby and me!! But oh what we learned. He went thru the whole surgery, from when we walk in the door the day of, to exactly what he does during surgery...where he staples, how he staples, what kind of tools he uses, how he closes you up (very small incision and he uses dermabond so NO staples!) AND he uses something called an On-Q pump for pain instead of the morphine pump. The On-Q pump is a teeny tiny tube in your incision that delivers anethesia to the incision for up to 56 hours after surgery so you have very minimal pain. They'll give you liquid narcotics if you have any breakthrough pain but this sounds awesome. Someone has posted about this On-Q pump on the main messageboard too. Anyway, after the info session and a talk w/ the PA and a one on one w/ Dr. Fallang, we got to go down to see the waiting room, the changing room, the recovery room, the operating room (all the walls are covered with an ocean scene, palm trees and sand and all, it was beautiful!), and then got to see "my" room. This made me feel so much more at ease, knowing where I'd be at, and at what stage and that my family could be with me every minute. I was going to go laproscopic but ended up changing my mind, Dr. Fallang's incision is so small that I decided to go open (which I NEVER thought I'd do!). I asked my infamous tattoo question and the PA just rolled his eyes! I said don't roll your eyes, this is something I want to do for myself!! (in a kidding but serious voice, lol). This is his answer....he said just to wait until I was healed all the way, around 3 months or so. Whoooo hoooo. I'm still nervous and anxious but getting to see everything beforehand sure helped me out. Everyone at his office is so very nice. 18 more days til I'm a loser! Bev

Hi Bev, I'm sooooooo excited for you!!!!!!!!!!!!! barb