Day of Surgery - Pre-op

I am going to try to recount what it was like for me the day of surgery in the pre-operative period in this post.
Due to the fact that I had slept through the alarm the day before, I actually set two alarms for this morning - one on my iPad and one on my regular clock radio. It was set to go off at 4:30 a.m. and I made sure that it went off with one of my favorite songs to help inspire and give me courage - the song is called - Faith to be Strong.
I took a quick drink of water, cognizant of the fact that I was allowed to drink up to 4 hours preop and the surgery time given me was 08:20 and then I got ready. I had already packed a bag to take to the hospital with me the day before but I went through it again to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. My son Caleb had surprised us and shown up the night before and stayed the night so he accompanied my husband and I to the hospital.
I was very impressed with the Admitting department, when I'd called the day before they made sure that I would bring in photo ID as well as my health care card. They went through my demographic information very carefully, this is called 'verify/validate' - something near and dear to my heart in my work role so it was gratifying to see that our message was being taken to heart. I choose to believe that this is being done for all patients, not just being done for me because of who I am and what I do. I honestly don't think this person knew.
We were sent on to the Day Surgery area which has 24 hour beds in it and I was assigned to one of them. I was asked to change - once again I have to raise a complaint about the gowns provided. It seems that everyone is now provided with a bariatric gown and I was swimming in mine and almost stepping on it. The blue paper slippers were also 'ginormous' and seemed to be in danger of falling off at any point in time.
On the surface, I felt pretty calm and ready, but my stomach was doing it's routine that it always does when I am anxious and that wasn't that much fun. I was only allowed to have one visitor back with me at any one time so my husband, Rod and my son, Caleb would take turns.
I had a good nurse. She took me to the scale first and I realized when she weighed me that sometime in the last month I lost about 10 pounds, this was a bit of a surprise to me as I hadn't really been paying attention and thought I was eating as I normally do.
Next was the IV; she was quick and relatively painless. We went through the pre-operative checklist, reviewed the consent and I was pretty well set to go by about 0715. I had my iPad with me so I looked at Facebook briefly and then played some more music using my earphones.
I felt a little cheated of time when the porter showed up about 0800 to take me to the OR.  Prior to her taking me on the stretcher another nurse started an IV antibiotic, checked my armband with the porter and signed off the pre-operative checklist one last time.
As the porter took me through the hallway, I felt like I had my own tour guide. She told me that I would be in OR 1 and that I was my surgeon's first case of the day so he would be well rested and alert for the surgery. I was able to say goodbye to my husband and wave at my son, then we stopped by the reception desk in the OR for another check before proceeding to the area of OR 1. I was left outside of the door of OR 1 in a busy hallway, with a change room across from it and lots of coming and going activity through it. I was starting to get a little nervous and I had very little to occupy my mind but watching all this activity, so I closed my eyes and prayed while I waited.
A very attractive, kind looking lady in OR gear walked by me, entered OR 1 and then a few minutes later she came out with a young looking guy who she introduced as a second year med student. She introduced herself as the anaesthetist, Dr. Y.  I was so pleased to hear this, I had heard good things about her from my 'sister' Gayle. She went through her questions, then took my hand and told me that not only was my surgeon an amazing person but that he was also an absolutely amazing surgeon and that I was in good hands. Very reassuring.
My surgeon then stopped by and also took my hand. He looked pretty solemn this surgery as opposed to my last surgery and asked me if I had any questions. I just wanted this over and done with so I said no.
I asked if I could use the washroom one more time (count on my stomach). This made it so I ended up walking into the OR rather than being wheeled in on the stretcher. The room felt as cold as a refrigerator and I was shaking. They asked me to hop up on the table, which I did and then it was like too many things going on at once to even take it all in.
The monitor leads were placed, something heavy and flexible was placed over my pelvic region, intermittent pressure stockings were placed on my legs and my IV burned for a second. The anaesthetist told me she was giving me something through it to relax me. I was in total agreement with that!
They had my left arm out on an extension and they placed my right arm out on another extension to the table, then they raised the head of the bed slightly. With that there was another burning sensation through the intravenous, the anaesthetist stated she was starting a muscle relaxant and then asked me if there was a nice place that I could think of and to go there in my mind.
That is the last thing I remembered until I woke up in the recovery room.