The final 36 hours of pre-op: a checklist.

And we're in the home stretch....

I'm waiting for a dryer load to get to the freshly clean and sanitized new panties and silk sleep bonnet in there, and once they're in my bag I am fully packed and ready to go.

So, the checklist is as follows:

✅ MyChart e-check in & Pre-registration.

✅ Everything I'm wearing to and immediately after the hospital needs to be laundered and sanitized.

✅ Hospital bag is packed and ready to go.

✅ Walker is tricked out with the cup and phone holder from Kevin the Rollator, as well as a side caddy I bought for my transport/manual wheelchair but also fits this walker. The padded "biker gloves" I also got for said wheelchair use will likely come in handy as well, as the walker handles are hard plastic.

⬜ All bedding slept in the night before the hospital needs to be laundered and sanitized the day before surgery. You thought you were doing something else that day?

⬜ This is where someone needs to break it to Penelope that my bed is off-limits for the night. Still not sure how to do that 😅😅

⬜ The Shower must be taken just before bed, with a freshly laundered net sponge and brand new bar of Safeguard soap. Hair prep for going down to the most minimal routine possible and not incurring damage and length loss happens here, too. And no, you don't get to use body washes and salt scrubs and lotions and butters and fragrances over it all.

⬜ Oh no, you use Hibiclens wipes on everything but your genitalia and face once you're scrubbed down and out of the shower. And nothing else.

⬜ No food or drink after midnight.

⬜ But I do need to drink three Ensure carb/glucose drinks on a schedule, with the last one something like three hours before my arrival time. I'll obviously read the instructions closer tomorrow 😅😅

And then, I head to the hospital, and my responsibilities as a patient are pretty much over. All the nurses and doctors take over from there. After a day before like that (and I'm not expecting to get much sleep between now and post-op), I'm grateful I just have to be physically present and compliant with simple instructions for awhile.