I decided that it was best that I get the surgery over with as soon as possible. I hate the rainy season and figured it was the best time to be confined to my bed. I made the surgical appointment for the following month. My Pain Management Doctor got me in touch with another woman who had surgery for tethered cord by the same neurosurgeon. What a blessing! She was able to answer my questions and send me a list of things in order to prepare. I ordered the hospital bed for my bedroom, and bought handlebars for the bathroom. I even packed earplugs and an eye mask to minimize sensory overload. I made all the preparations and that gave me a sense of well- being and some control. I counted the days. I was actually anxious to get this whole thing over with! I still struggled with worrying about my kids. Especially my youngest Caroline. The other two were old enough to take care of themselves, but Caroline still needed me. I was fortunate enough to have my in-laws take her for the week that Mike and I would be in N.Y. I was also blessed to have a friend offer to take her for the first week I was home. Another friend organized a chart so that I would have a friend come stay with me every day for the first two weeks. All of this took an enormous load off my mind. I knew my kids would be well cared for and so would I.
So the day to travel to NY finally arrived. Again we decided to go up the night before. Morning came and I needed to go the the hospital for all the pre-op paperwork. That took a couple of hours and then we went back to the hotel for a little nap. I knew I could not eat or drink past midnight so I wanted to have a nice meal. We found an authentic Indian restaurant. I ordered my usual Channa Marsala and I convinced Michael to order the goat, simply because I was so curious about it but not daring enough to order it myself. It was actually quite good. We took our time eating and then headed back to the hotel. I took a shower with the prescribed betadine sponges, got dressed for bed and tucked myself under the covers. Tomorrow was the big day. I said my prayers and drifted off to sleep........
