Friday, October 19, 2007

Everything I Know About Spines

Came in handy tonight as there was a question on Jeopardy that actually used the same spinal model they showed in the class today. It was very interesting learning about the spine and after seeing the intricacies involved it only reinforced my belief that although I know man evolved, there was some intelligent design guiding it.

Other than Jeopardy answers here's what else I learned:

Nothing to eat after midnight before the surgery.
Daily meds can be taken with small sips of water morning of surgery.
Bring all meds with you in their original containers. (Not pain meds)
Show up two hours prior to surgery
Go through the Main Entrance of the hospital to the admitting office next to the gift shop, do not stop at Starbucks.
From the admitting office take the elevator to the second floor.
Check in on the second floor.
Patient will then be taken to pre-op, family may be allowed to go with them.
Surgery will take 1-2 hours per level (ours is two levels)
Post Op will take 90 minutes to 2 hours depending on recovery time for patient and work load of nursing staff.
From Post Op patient will be taken to room probably on 5th floor, possibly on 7th floor.
Patient will be in hospital 2-4 days.
Follow up with surgeon in 4 weeks, driving will most likely be approved at that time.
Roller coasters may be approved after bone density testing.

Any questions?