The next part

A few days after being released from the hospital the surgeons office called and set up an apt for me on the13th of July to meet with the surgeon and go over how they were going to do the surgery and to give me my surgery date. Dr. Schmidt once again went over the dangers of operating so close to my brain stem. Then he explained that a surgical conference had been called and it was decided that my surgery should be done in two parts. The first part would be removing the bone chunk from the back of my spine and fussing the top few vertebrae to my skull. The second part would come later if needed and they would then remove the chunk of bone from the front of my vertebrae. My first surgery was scheduled for 6 days later. Over the next 6 days I prepared for my surgery. I talked to my nieces and nephews and made sure they knew how proud of them I am and told them that I was having a Minor surgery and that it was no big deal. I talked to my siblings and told them about my surgery and what a big deal it was. I made arrangements for my dad and step mom to come up from CA for the surgery. At 30 I filled out my first advanced medical directive and I organized my DVD collection. One of my sisters from CA and her two kids came up a few days before the surgery and surprised me. I spent the 6 days before my surgery keeping everyone else calm I didn't have time to freak out myself. Finlay July 19th 2011 came. It was a Wednesday and early that morning we arrived at the hospital for my surgery. They told us they expected it to take 10-12 hrs. I got my IV and was soon asleep.