TAH: Suggestions on how to deal with late day surgery

Hello ,

Does anyone have suggestions on how to deal with the "nothing by mouth after midnight" restrictions and mid to late afternoon surgery?

Our hospital doesn't normally notify patients of surgery time until the day before, but they called me yesterday for some insurance information and, in passing, told me that I was tentatively scheduled for mid-afternoon surgery but that may get pushed back.

The problem is I am coffee drinker and get headaches when I miss my morning cup, not to mention the hunger headaches when I don't eat. I am afraid I will be a wreck before I even get to the hospital.

Any suggestions and or experiences would be welcomed.

Call the hospital or your doctor - and follow their instructions. Yours may be very different than mine.

I'm scheduled for 2:30 and had my hospital pre-op yesterday. I was told no solids after midnight and clear liquids only until 10:00 am, so I will a able to get my coffee fix, sans cream, in the morning. I've heard jello is considered a clear liquid, so that might help if you are cleared for them in the morning.

Others have said they were too preoccupied to worry about food and it wasn't a problem.

This is the clear liquid diet my doc gave me:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cle...d-diet/my00742

As the other (((sister))) said, it's important to follow your doc's instructions to the letter.

You may want to call and tell the that you will get a headache with no caffeine. I've heard of hospitals actually putting caffeine into the IV drip!

I had a mid-day operation and I am also a coffee fan. I didn't have any sort of headache, which sort of surprised me. I guess the stress of the surgery kept the headache at bay for the day?

As the other sisters said, talk to your doctor.

My surgery got rescheduled from early morning (6 AM) to late morning (11 AM) due to an x-ray machine schedule conflict. I talked to my anesthesiologist, and she allowed me to have clear liquids that morning until 7 AM. In fact, she wanted me to push the fluids. I am hypoglycemic, so being able to have clear juice really helped me.

Hugs...

My doctor gave me all the information I needed about my diet before surgery at pre-op. I'm allowed to have clear liquids up to two hours before my arrival time. So, for me, its pretty much right up until the time I leave my house and head to the hospital (It's a 3 hour drive for me).

Call and talk to them again; my surgery was at 2pm and I was able to eat a light breakfast and have liquid until 7am; let them know about the coffee and hopefully they'll have suggestions to help you

Thank you all for your advice. I called the doctor yesterday afternoon and they told me that I should follow the hospital's directions. I called the hospital and they said they can't give me directions until Tuesday when they call with my surgery time.

So I am going to plan for it all and have the stuff on hand from the link and for a light breakfast. It is not like it will go to waste if I don't eat/drink it before surgery.

I also thought I would ask about dry swallowing a caffeine pill if the headache starts.

Again thank you everyone!