4 days pre-op -- all clear for surgery!

I was so relieved today to go to Sinai Hospital and be cleared to have surgery on Monday. My cold is finally almost gone. Zicam is amazing stuff. I'm in a lot of pain and have had to cancel so many voice lessons, that I wouldn't blame my students if they were looking for another teacher. I hope they don't, and I can't wait to get back to teaching, but I can barely stand up for long at this point.

Sinai offered an excellent orientation for joint replacement patients that I attended this morning. They offer it twice a week, so they must do a tremendous amount of replacements. I felt like running out of the room and changing my mind at some points. The thought of possible hospital infections, hospital food (which we were warned is not great), blood being taken every morning at 3 am, and of course the PAIN that I'll be in after the surgery is quite daunting. But on the other hand I'm excited to be finally doing this. I just keep thinking about being able to go for long walks again. And to do more gigs with Adrian again. 

Looks like I'll be able to have spinal anesthesia. My blood coagulation disorder won't be a problem after all. If you have hemophilia or a condition that causes excessive bleeding, they can't risk a hematoma and bleeding at the spinal injection point. But my condition causes the inability to break up clots, and that doesn't matter for spinal anesthesia, apparently. It may be a risk during recovery, but they will put me on blood thinners.