Pre Op Appt

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Originally Posted by Michelle1031 My surgery is this Friday August 7th! My dr pre op visit was 7-24 only because the dr was on vacation this last week, otherwise it would be a week before! I'm going tomorrow August 3rd to the hospital to register and do all my pre op lab work! They want the lab work as close to surgery date as possible! At least at my hospital!! Good luck 😊😊❤️❤️

The key phrase there is "as possible." One of the reasons I had my pre-op work done two weeks before my surgery is that the pre-op work was happening at my local hospital, which is in a different system than my surgery hospital. Communication between the two systems isn't all that great. Two weeks was necessary to ensure that the information would get to my surgery hospital in time. What was optimal (shorter time gap) had to give way to what was *possible*.

What sometimes works is to play the "not happening" card and see what response you get. For example, I was originally told to be at my surgery hospital at 6:45 AM. I replied calmly, "Not happening. The earliest bus I can take doesn't get to --- until 9:10. I can be at the hospital at 9:30."

Then I waited to see what response I'd get. If the scheduler had insisted on the 6:45 AM time, I would have taken a bus the day before and stayed overnight in a hotel or possibly the hospital's hostel. But what happened instead was that the scheduler said, "Okay, be here at 9:30."

I never would have got that concession if I hadn't asked for it.

Call your doc, tell them you'll be out of town from this date to that date, and ask to get your pre-op work scheduled before you leave. If they say you'll have to change your travel plans, reply calmly, "Not happening. My entire family's invovled and the reservations can't be changed/ the tickets are non-refundable/ etc."

Then see what response you get. You're never going to know if you don't ask. :-)

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Originally Posted by SurprisedInNB The key phrase there is "as possible." One of the reasons I had my pre-op work done two weeks before my surgery is that the pre-op work was happening at my local hospital, which is in a different system than my surgery hospital. Communication between the two systems isn't all that great. Two weeks was necessary to ensure that the information would get to my surgery hospital in time. What was optimal (shorter time gap) had to give way to what was *possible*. What sometimes works is to play the "not happening" card and see what response you get. For example, I was originally told to be at my surgery hospital at 6:45 AM. I replied calmly, "Not happening. The earliest bus I can take doesn't get to --- until 9:10. I can be at the hospital at 9:30." Then I waited to see what response I'd get. If the scheduler had insisted on the 6:45 AM time, I would have taken a bus the day before and stayed overnight in a hotel or possibly the hospital's hostel. But what happened instead was that the scheduler said, "Okay, be here at 9:30." I never would have got that concession if I hadn't asked for it. Call your doc, tell them you'll be out of town from this date to that date, and ask to get your pre-op work scheduled before you leave. If they say you'll have to change your travel plans, reply calmly, "Not happening. My entire family's invovled and the reservations can't be changed/ the tickets are non-refundable/ etc." Then see what response you get. You're never going to know if you don't ask. :-)

I will definitely do that, thanks for the advice. This whole process is very overwhelming.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by SurprisedInNB The key phrase there is "as possible." One of the reasons I had my pre-op work done two weeks before my surgery is that the pre-op work was happening at my local hospital, which is in a different system than my surgery hospital. Communication between the two systems isn't all that great. Two weeks was necessary to ensure that the information would get to my surgery hospital in time. What was optimal (shorter time gap) had to give way to what was *possible*. What sometimes works is to play the "not happening" card and see what response you get. For example, I was originally told to be at my surgery hospital at 6:45 AM. I replied calmly, "Not happening. The earliest bus I can take doesn't get to --- until 9:10. I can be at the hospital at 9:30." Then I waited to see what response I'd get. If the scheduler had insisted on the 6:45 AM time, I would have taken a bus the day before and stayed overnight in a hotel or possibly the hospital's hostel. But what happened instead was that the scheduler said, "Okay, be here at 9:30." I never would have got that concession if I hadn't asked for it. Call your doc, tell them you'll be out of town from this date to that date, and ask to get your pre-op work scheduled before you leave. If they say you'll have to change your travel plans, reply calmly, "Not happening. My entire family's invovled and the reservations can't be changed/ the tickets are non-refundable/ etc." Then see what response you get. You're never going to know if you don't ask. :-)

Yes everything is not the same for everyone!
Have to do what has to be done in order to be prepared, especially if you know how slow the hospitals are!!