Testing testing... 1.. 2.. 3..

I never thought preparing for a surgery could be so stressful (I joke). I guess it comes with the territory of preparing for a PAO, but the past month or so has been pretty intense. Being that I'm having my surgery in Salt Lake City, Utah, I wanted to have my body checked out here in Albuquerque before I flew out for the surgery to make sure that everything was good for the surgery. I have been having a few dizzy spells and fainting episodes the past couple of months and thought it may be time to address it, my doctor decided to send me to a cardiologist to check my heart out. After wearing a heart monitor for 24 hours, having multiple EKG's as well as an echocardiogram the doctor decided I needed a tilt table test. What a horrible test to put people through, pretty much the point of the test is to cause you to pass out to see how your body responds before, during and after. I was hooked up to an IV just in case they needed to administer medication and the test began... This is the angle that I was brought up to:

After the nurse tilted the table up, I started to feel sweaty, nauseated and just yucky, it took me 15 minutes to pass out, what a horrible feeling. I literally blacked out, all I could see were white spots all around me and I heard the nurse telling me to stay calm, that she was there and everything would be fine. After sweating like I just ran a marathon, she gave me some saline and let me lay on the table until I felt ok. My cardiologist doctor then came in and talked to me and told me that the condition I have is not life threatening, that there are medicinal options that I could try, but she advised that I should be intaking more water. Because I have such a big surgery coming up, we both decided that this wasn't a priority to deal with at the moment, but she reassured me that it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought and gave me the go ahead for surgery. Glad that ordeal is over!

I am now 5 days out from my RPAO and I feel okay. Some moments I'm freaking out, others I am calm and ready to be done with it. I think the thing that freaks me out most is that I am completely mobile right now, able to do things for myself, in 5 days I will be completely immobile and completely reliant on others. It's a hard pill to swallow (pun intended.) I wanted to make a list of things that have been the most helpful to me personally to prepare me for this whole process, so here goes:

1. I noticed my hip problem over a year and a half ago, I was extremely active at that time, but began to notice how detrimental being so obsessed with exercising was becoming to my life. It has taken me maybe a year, but I have come to peace with the fact that I can't really be active at the moment, I have gotten pretty used to having a somewhat sedentary lifestyle so I think that may be one less thing to get me down during recovery. 

2. I am a home body, I very much enjoy my time alone and would most of the time prefer to stay home and watch a UFC fight, a good movie or even write blogs and clean my room (weird I know.) I know being at home for long periods of time will be difficult, but I know it is critical to my healing process and will be very thoughtful of that. 

3. I have such an amazing support system around me, I don't have tons of friends, but the ones I do have are so unbelievable. My family have been so good to me through this process as well, I am not fortunate enough to be able to sustain a full time job, because of my hip issues and my parents have been nice enough to allow me to live in their house until I'm back up on my feet. I have a dream come true boyfriend, he is flying to Utah to go through the process with me and will be coming back to take care of me after surgery, I haven't seen him in months so it's an understatement to say I'm excited to see him :) 

4. I have found many women who have gone through this process before and even though a lot of people say not to go on the internet, not to read into things too much because it'll freak you out, it has been such a blessing to find support groups and blogs. I am a very plan oriented person and I do really well with mental preparation before I face something. My mentality for this surgery is to expect the absolute worst so that I can be prepared for that. If I expect that it will all be unicorns and rainbows, it's going to be a rude awakening when things aren't that at all. 

5. My bodybuilding definitely helped teach me determination and never giving up, I carry those characteristics with me every single day and without them, I guarantee I would have given up by now. 

6. God, having God by my side gives me so much strength it blows my mind at times.  I used to be the person who didn't understand how people could rely on someone who they've never seen, change their lives for someone that a lot of people don't believe in. Faith is a strong reason why I've gotten through the past year and a half. This process has been depressing, completely life wrecking, but having that higher power to rely on and know that He has a path for me has given me all the hope in the world. I never try to tell people what to believe in, that's not my place, but for me, it has been very important through such a rough period in my life to have someone to rely on that I know will always be there. 

These are just a few things that have gotten me through this beginning process.. we'll see if they get me through the real tough stuff. I'm hopeful! 

I recorded a video last weekend that I'm a little apprehensive to share, but I think it's important to get the real truth out and how I'm really feeling. I get a little emotional at the end so prepare yourself for that, and I ask that you don't judge me, it takes a lot of guts to share all of this. I hope that I can help one person like others have been able to help me!

Link to my video:

http://youtu.be/Lm41UbNc2k4

Thanks for reading :)