two days to go and woke with a cold! Chest Congestion vs a cough?

Darn it all! My stepdaughter arrived for her weekend on Friday with a nasty cold....I thought to myself....NICE, REEEEEALLY NICE!

So here it is....Sunday....and I am sneezing and I have a terrible runny nose. I'm not noticing much of a cough, although, I cough anyway because I am one of those NAAASTY smokers! LOL

I have searched for some answers here, but I need some clarification!

Surgery, usually, wont get cancelled long as I don't have a fever and chest congestion? So what's the difference between a cough caused by chest congestion, vs a REGULAR cough????? I have already waited a MONTH for this surgery, I would just lose it if I had to reschedule

VITAMIN C?

Can I take it or not.....I have read here that some are taking it, and some are not supposed to. Has anyone pounded vitamin C just before surgery? Has anyone been told NOOOOOOOOO.....

I'd love to take a bunch of it today to knock the heck out of this cold. If my surgery is Tuesday morning....would today be OK?

What about ZICAM?

My Dr's office is closed....so, what should I do?

Really starting to get overly anxious about surgery....OH and FYI if you're pre-op DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT watch one of those LAVH videos!! I don't know what I was thinking!!!!!!!! Holy cow!

I do have to laugh at your last comment!!! I watched a Da Vinci surgery at or-live.com and man oh man. The surgeon was showing what "easy" access he had through the vagina by moving his instruments (roughly) in and out. That was gonna hurt in the morning!!! I was like hey knock it off. lol. My DH said why are you watching this cut it out. I am trying not too any more.
About your cold. Run to the store and get powdered or liquid Bentonite. it is a type of clay. Run a real hot water bath put lots of it in, sit and soak. The clay will draw out the impurities in your body. I have used this many times even with small children and you feel awesome when you are done. That should help. Good luck, I wouldn't want to postpone my surgery.

I KNOW! I have forbidden myself to look at anymore
of THAT stuff AND I have forbidden myself to read
ANYTHING in the Post-op forum. It really doesn't
help the nerves at all ;o

On a side note....I was doing more "research" on
google and found this from a female Dr's webpage.

Good reading about medications!!



Medications and supplements before surgery

There is a litany of medications and supplements to not take before surgery. The most essential are those that could cause unnecessary bleeding, such as aspirin-containing products, NSAID’s (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), and extra vitamin E, garlic, ginseng, or Ginkgo, which should be discontinued a week or so before surgery. Depending on the type of surgery, some surgeons will ask you to stop these products two to three weeks in advance ... continued here.

Good reading. Thanks a lot.

On the note of the videos, I have watched multiple video's and they calm me down. How weird is that? I am strange, what can I say.

My 14 yo son watched them with me and he now knows more about the inside of a woman than most grown men....haha!!!

Sorry to hear that you are suddenly sick!

Right before Easter, DH and I got sick. He got better almost immediately. I, on the other hand, still had this cough that would NOT go away no matter what I did. Like you , I didn't want to wait or postpone this another day. I was in my drs office for my preop. I asked about the nasty cough. He listened to my chest and said that it wasn't there so he wasn't cocncerned. But he did forewarn me that it was going to hurt when I coughed with the incision. YAY!

Had surgery on May 1. I coughed zero times in the hospital. Once home, I coughed two times where I had alot of pleghm come up. Since then, I havent coughed at all! Must have been the fact that I had to empty myself and then got pumped full of all the meds while under.

On Tuesday morning, if you are still not feeling well, make an appointment or just ask what they suggest. Remember to drink lots of water and rest! It will be like a practice for post op!

Feel better soon,
amy

HOPEFULLY....sniffles and all, I will be under the gas at 9:15!!!!!

I would say this is one of those times when you call the doctor's office and get in touch with the doctor on call. Your surgery is schedule for Tuesday (as I understand it) and anything you take might be forbidden and cancel/reschedule the surgery whether or not the cold/cough/whatever would have in the first place. So all and ask to speak to the doctor on call. :twocents:

Thanks for the advice to NOT watch the video! I was thinking about doing that, but have decided not to until after surgery. When it comes to the preop and postop boards, I don't read much about complications or recovery times unless the person had LAVH or some other laparoscopic/vaginal surgery (I consider daVinci in this catagory).

I hope you are feeling better!

Hotflats, what a panic, eh?

Call your doctor's office and ask them about any of the supplements/OTC medications that might be a help to you.

While the article mentioned above mentions vitamin C before surgery, most surgeons are adamantly against it. Be careful what you take as it can make a difference in the way your body responds during surgery and while in recovery.

That said, do not take anything without the approval of your surgeon. An online article provides great info but your personal surgeon has the last word. Check with him/her!

i agree -- at my pre-op on Thursday, doc said to discontinue all vitamins and supplements, as well as advil from then until surgery (1-week) ... i would confess it all when you get to the castle (if the bentonite bath doesn't work - great idea btw), because the last thing you're going to want when you're recovering is a cough! i sneezed a few days after my c-section and thought my guts were going to be in my hand - it was AWFUL! if you do get rescheduled, consider it a (very inconvenient) blessing!

Well.....I did manage to get my hands on some ZICAM swabs....which seems to be helping.
The sniffles have diminished but now I have a slight cough!

Here's hoping that it's not enough to cancel tomorrows surgery!

Wish me easy sailing!