Getting Cold - Surgery 12/28?

Does anyone know if you can still have surgery if you are getting a cold? I have had a cough. I told the nurse during my pre-op call. She said as long as I don't have a fever it would be okay. Also, mentioned this to the lady in the doctor's office while I was in to sign my papers on Monday. She said that I could use cough medicine as long as it did not have the aspirin or tylenol type medicine in it. I got just a plain cough syrup. I wish now that I would have asked to talk to the doctor about this. It was just not going anyplace else at the time, just the cough. This morning I feel like I could be going into a full cold. My throat is a little scratchy and I fell like I am going to start sneezing. My question is can they still do surgery? I am scheduled for 8:00a.m. Monday morning and here it is Christmas Eve. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Would they cancel my surgery because of this? Help! Any suggestions?

I would think it will be ok! I understand the worry though...I have been exposed to strep throat (my youngest has it, and the morning before he exhibited symptoms I shared my food with him) so I'm all concerned I'll get strep. According to my preop appointment, a cold wouldn't stop the surgery!

Hi ILoveKitties and lenabena,

I went along to the hospital for my op with a cough. It was much worse on the day as I wasn't allowed any water after 7.30am and I didn't see the consultant until 1pm. They didn't seem too concerned (consultant or anaesthetist) and went ahead with the op.

I mentioned it at my pre-op appointment and they said if I started getting a cold on my chest to go straight to the doctors for antibiotics and to ring them (pre-appointment nurse). They were only concerned if it settled on my chest and I was coughing stuff up (TMI!). I think this is more for the general anaesthetic than anything else.

Fingers crossed you'll be ok and won't come down with anything.

I had a cold, and a bad cough. As long as there is no fever present, you can still have surgery.

I had a bad cold, mostly in my sinuses though, not a lot of coughing. They went ahead with the surgery because I wasn't running a fever and when I woke up the cold was gone. I think it was the oxygen. A few days later it was back, but not as bad. They have a cold remedy tea that I drank the night before my surgery. It seemed to help a little bit.

I had a cold when i had my surgery they told me as long as there was no fever or congestion i would be oked although the anast. was almost going to cancel cause i had a mild cough so i would call the hosp and talk to the anast. before your surgery date

Here's hoping your surgery can go on as scheduled. Docs and hospitals have different procedures, so for now just take care, get lots of and call if you have any further questions about medications you can and cannot take.

A big Thank You for all of your posts. I still have the cough, but it is better. I am coughing up a small amount of crud, but I don't think it is too bad. It is worse in the morning. As I said before I was told as long as I don't have a fever. I hate to disrupt my gyn's holiday with a call, but I will call Sunday if I need to. This hospital I am going to is a Surgeon built hospital, so I am not even sure if anyone is there over the weekend to talk to about this, especially because of the holiday. I don't think that surgeries are done on Saturday's or Sunday's. Now I am wondering if you are charged if you go for the surgery as scheduled and the anesthesiologist decides to cancel it? Oh well, I will just have to deal with what will be.