I think @Judi hit it on the nail and drove that nail the whole way through in one swing here Appointment today - #2 by Judi
Like Merl, I want all the what if’s I can covered. I call it getting my house and House in order, something a dear friend labeled whilst he was battling a rare cancer. He called a week or so before one of my procedures to see how we were doing. I told him I was getting my house in order and he said something like “Yes ma’am, getting both houses in order is something that needs doing.” Levi had the strongest spiritual belief of anyone I’ve ever met, he also had a strong Christina belief. So when say House, it’s an acknowledgment to both checking in on our spiritual beliefs and to Levi who took to heart what Christ was saying about love and practiced it every day of his life. Don’t know why I shared Levi, I guess it’s because just talking to him or sitting next to him brought me a great sense of peace. I wish I could give you his number but he doesn’t have a phone anymore I imagine. If you have someone like that in your life, give them a shout.
House with the lower case h, is all our chores, especially the heavy ones like vacuuming and mopping and oh my gosh, the bathroom(s). If you have the responsibility of a yard, do that as well. Get your prepared meals in the freezer or fridge, make a check off list of everything you can think of and get things crossed off the list. Don’t forget to make sure your prescriptions aren’t going to run out soon, if they are at the point that you’ll run out within an week post procedure, talk to your pharmacist and see if they can’t get you past that week. Sometimes our insurance doesn’t allow prescriptions to be refilled early. My pharmacist would give me 7-10 days extra, he had a craniotomy due to a vehicular accident, so very understanding about brain procedures. Focusing these tasks will help you focus on something else.
Have you been practicing getting in and out of bed with the step you were going to get? I think that would be important as you might not want to try something new like that the first couple of days you get home. Something else I’ve learned from other members is to either have one of those beds that the mattress can be adjusted or a wedge pillow as you might find relief in keep your head elevated whilst you sleep. NSICU likes to have us at a 30 d angle, I forget why.
Try to muster up all the positive energy you can as it will help during your procedure and afterwards. I can’t stress this enough, pun intended. When we go into something like a brain procedure that’s overwhelming to say the least, it helps us tenfold.