Countdown - less than 11 hours

Surgery is less than 10 hours away although I do have to be there at 5:15. Yikes! Should I even go to sleep?? Let's see if I can re-cap the appointments today:

Audiology
A ridiculous amount of beeeeeps in each ear. Oh, and let's add wind noise too. After about 30 minutes of that, I was told I have high frequency hearing loss. Apparently no big deal. I'll go back about a month after surgery to make sure that doesn't change.

Anesthesology
We covered the basics. No problems in the past with anesthesia. I'm supposed to get the "good stuff" about 30 minutes after I arrive. Good thing because I imagine I'll be a bit antsy by then... a bit MORE antsy by then. I wanted to verify that the breathing tube will be long gone before I wake up. We also discussed the recent episode of "Grey's Anatomy" where the patient woke up during the middle of surgery. I'm not really concerned about that, but had to bring it up anyway. The anesthesiologist said there would be 2 people monitoring me the whole time, but they will give each other breaks periodically.

Gidley
Nothing new. Reviewed the same risks. The most likely side effects will be taste disturbance & dizziness.

Weber
Re-iterated that nerve loss is a very real possibility. They are going to try to save the facial nerve, but no promises. Even with a nerve graft there's a less than 50% chance of re-gaining facial function. There was also mention of a few other side effects, but he said those should be the least of my worries. One was Frey's syndrome and I forget the other one, but it would cause a sharp pain in my mouth when I first eat or drink something. He also said that he thinks there are more tumors now than when I first saw him (this from the man that couldn't remember my name, but he remembers my tumors!!) And those pesky tumors seem to be crawling down my neck now. Good golly, let's get these things out of there and zap them!

Dr. Gidley will work with Dr. Weber to identify the facial nerve. After he's done his part, he expects to leave about 2 hours into the surgery. Then Dr. Weber gets to work on clearing it all out. He said it would be a very long process. The plastic surgeon probably won't be called in until later in the afternoon. I'm fully expecting the ALT flap which means one night in ICU. Not sure when I can update again, but I'll do my best. Maybe I can dictate.