 What to Expect? Never had surgery! Part 1 |
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I’ve never had surgery before and I don’t know what to expect. What will happen when I get to the hospital? What happens when I go into surgery?
When you get to the hospital, you will check in and you may have to register or show them your insurance card. Sometimes this is already done over the phone a day or two before, but sometimes not. You will get a wristband put on with your name, birth date, your doctor’s name and the surgery date. There might be other information on it, but at least those 4 pieces of information are pretty standard. After this, you will probably wait a bit until they call your name.
When you get called, a nurse will bring you into the preparation room, sometimes called phase 1, prep, or pre-op. Here you will get into a lovely hospital gown and slippers or socks. Some hospitals provide a robe, others give you a second gown to put on like a robe. At this point, even if you’ve brought your own, I’d suggest using the hospital gown. There’s plenty of time later to wear your own and surgery can get messy. The nurse will be asking a lot of questions. Common questions include your medical history (if you’re diabetic, have high blood pressure, heart problems, etc), any medications you’re allergic to, any previous surgeries, any medications you take currently, height, weight, and when was the last time you ate or drank anything. You will probably be asked these questions 3 or 4 times by different people and you may think, “well, why don’t they just look in my chart?!” It’s because each person wants to hear it from you directly, not just what was written down. There are also plenty of times when, after the second or third series of questions, you might give a slightly different answer or remember that your mother told you she got really sick from anesthesia 10 years ago.
It’s important that you answer these questions honestly, even if they’re embarrassing. How you answer them could influence how much or what kind of medication they give you. If you have had anything to eat or drink, even chewing gum or hard candy, they may have to postpone the surgery an hour or more. The problem is that the anesthesia can make you nauseous and if you throw up during surgery, because you’re unconscious, you could inhale it and it could cause a severe pneumonia.
This content was written by a member of HysterSisters.com as a non-medical professionals based on discussions, resources and input from other patients for the purpose of patient-to-patient support.
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-- January NewsletterPost Hysterectomy Fitness and Health is the theme of our January, 2012 newsletter at HysterSisters.com. Visit this link [ More]...
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