bowel prep?

I've been reading through the posts yesterday and today - just found out about the site. I was wondering what the bowel prep is that is talked about?
My surgery is tomorrow at noon, and I've had no pre-op appointments, no bowel prep stuff, or anything. The only thing I did get was a call from the hospital telling me not to take anything by mouth after 7am.
Then at dinner tonight I ran into one of the surgery nurses (it really helps being in a small town!) who said I'd be ok to have a swallow or 2 between 7-10am AND it was ok to take my normal daily meds.

I'm feeling a little unprepared. Ready, but not. Make sense?


karla
TAH 2/11

Well I'd have to say it's very unusual not to have a pre-op appointment. Since you're going in for surgery tomorrow, I guess there's no way to make that happen now. Not everyone has to have bowel prep before surgery. You should only do so if your Dr. asked you to. I hope you have a relaxing evening, and a chance to ask some unanswered questions tomorrow before the surgery. You certainly should have ample time to talk to the anaesthesiologist to discuss your options. I am excited for you. You know the anticipation is worse than the surgery and recovery. You will be amazed how happy you are tomorrow when its over. And, you'll be able to say what everyone else is post op -- "that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be". Hang in there and relax.

Not everyone has to do a bowel prep and not everyone has a pre op apt. The last apt I had with my DR was the day we scheduled surgery, about 6 weeks out. I did have a pre op apt at the hospital - signed admissions papers, met with a nurse to go over instructions, bowel prep, what time to arrive, etc, and I did have a blood draw to type and cross match in case I needed blood during surgery.

My last surgery I had a phone pre op with the hospital, they did the blood work the morning of surgery.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to call your DR, but it's very important that you don't do a bowel prep without specific instructions to do so - you can cause compications during surgery by doing an unrequested bowel prep.

Best wishes!

I was surprised that you were allowed to drink so close to surgery time. My surgery is at 1pm and was told not to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before surgery. I have had three other surgeries in the past and had to follow this same rule. What type of surgery are you having?