Bags are packed, but this ain't no vacation

An automated call came through about an hour ago, with information on my arrival time, what to bring, and where to go tomorrow morning. An automated call. Seriously? I'm about to have my face and neck sliced open, my face peeled back to reveal most of my cheek, chin and neck, and they can't have an actual person call me to provide this information in a more comforting sort of way?

But since that's the way they handle things, I sat and listened to the several minutes of automated  information. "Arrive at 8:45am, wear comfortable and loose clothing, pack an overnight bag, do not bring anything valuable, do not eat or drink after midnight", etc, etc. This reminds me - I do not have a bag packed. Packing an overnight bag makes me think of back when I was about to deliver a baby. However, I'm fairly certain it was easier to recover from delivering a 7 pound baby (with no drugs, mind you), than it will be to recover from removing a probably 1 oz tumor. Crazy.

I was curious what time the actual surgery would begin, so I had to hang up and call back to the main hospital. It's set for 10:15am, but of course, anything can happen to delay it. And the surgery will take 3-4 hours, with recovery another hour or more, so stay tuned for an update mid-late afternoon tomorrow.

Until then, I'll be up until 11:59pm stuffing my face! Not really. But doesn't that sound like fun?

As a side note - the new steroid medication (to help control the black-outs) I've been on for just one week, has caused me to gain five pounds already. I kid you not. Five freaking pounds in one week. So, perhaps this whole surgery couldn't have come at a better time... I'll be on a liquid diet for a few days, so maybe I can drop this extra baggage. Although, it's probably better I retain this water weight because I need to increase my blood volume. And today I completed my first workout in over two years without experiencing a black-out spell, so apparently this medicine (and the extra weight) is working. Yay me!

And another side note, I keep singing Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" out loud everywhere I go. People must think I'm crazy, but I've got to keep reminding myself "every little thing gonna be all right".