Before you leave home
- Take a shower with the soap you were given.
- Take off:
- Nail polish
- Makeup
- Jewelry
- All piercings
- Bring information about any implantable devices you have.
- Continue drinking clear liquids.Avoid alcohol. Finish this by two hours before your scheduled surgery time.
- If you do not stop drinking two hours before your surgery or you drink more than the allowed amount, your surgery may be canceled or delayed.
Getting to the hospital
- Get to the hospital on the morning of surgery at the time you were instructed.
- This should be two hours before your surgery starts.
- Check in at the Day of Surgery area by Elevator H, Level 5 at your scheduled time.
- A person from the health-care team will take you to a pre-op room and start getting you ready for surgery. Your family can stay with you. The care team will:
- Take your blood pressure, pulse, temperature, and weight
- Draw blood if needed and check your blood sugar
- Start an IV
- Have you change into a hospital gown
- Put a warming blanket on you. Your body does much better during and after surgery when it is warm.
- Clip the hair off your stomach. Do not shave your stomach at home.
- You will meet your anesthesia team.
- The resident doctor will see you and make sure:
- You are still in good health
- The bowel prep was finished
- Answer questions you may have
- Mark your stomach at the surgery site
You may be given a dose of Tylenol or gabapentin to take before surgery. These medicines help with pain after surgery. The anesthesia team will give you IV medicine right after surgery to keep you comfortable. Some patients may be offered a nerve block by the anesthesia team to help with post-op pain control.
A green bracelet will be put on your arm once all these things are done. This tells the care team you are ready to go to the operating room.
There will be a lot of double checking, which may not seem needed. It is to make sure you have the best outcome possible.
Operating room
When you go to the operating room, your family will wait in the Day of Surgery Lounge (Elevator H, Level 6). Your doctor will talk with them when your surgery is done.
In the operating room, the care team will:
- Put patches on you to monitor your heart
- Give you a shot of a blood thinner
- Put inflatable boots on your legs to help prevent blood clots during surgery
- Clean your skin again
- Double check your name, date of birth, and the surgery one last time
- Put you to sleep with medicine in your IV or gas through a mask. It works very fast.
After this, your surgeon will do your surgery with the help of a surgery resident and nurses.
During your surgery, the operating room nurse will call the volunteer in the Day of Surgery waiting room every two hours with updates.