I'm so happy for you that the surgery date is nearing!
I don't have the paddle leads, but several here should be able to give you more input on those details.......and for sure you'd want to write your Q's down and these are what will be discussed at your pre-op appointment.

At my pre-op appointment, the main thing they wanted was a UA (urine analysis, to rule out any infections)..... They also asked several questions such as: have you recently or will recently be needing to get any DENTAL work done! I had NO idea how important it is to NOT get dental work done in the same timeframe as an implant surgery. I did'nt even correlate the 2 whatsoever! I always thought health issues and dental issues were totally seperate from one another. And from here on out, we are supposed to get antibiotics in us prior to getting ANY dental work done, as it raises the risk for infection spreading thru the bloodstream. Who would have thought!
Since you've had implants before, you may already know this, but it really threw me for a loop when they asked me this prior to my SCS implant because i actually DID have a root canal scheduled and could have possibly set myself up for a bad infection!
Even just to get a routine teeth cleaning, we still are supposed to take antibiotics about an hour prior to the dental appt....
We actually have a very wonderful 'Dental' forum right here at NT! If you have any questions about dental issues, ask 'Bryanna' over at the Dental Forum.
From the sounds of your prior posts, it looks as tho they are keeping a close eye on your cardiac issues.

I'm not sure about the staples you asked about. Mark's thread would be a good one to read back through, as he did a wonderful job at documenting most of the details involved with his laminectomy.

I'm excited for you Tara!

Rae