Home Contact Us Tell a Friend  Print Page
3rd Party Payers and Insurers
 
patient.jpg
test

Preparing for Surgery

Step 2: The Day of Your Surgery

Don't Eat or Drink

Food and liquids in the stomach during an anesthetic are not safe. They create stomach acid that can return up the esophagus and enter the lungs. Have nothing to eat or drink, including gum or candy after midnight the night before your surgery. You may have water up to five (5) hours before surgery. Take all your usual medications EXCEPT diabetic medications at the normal time with enough water to swallow them. Bring your diabetic medications with you.

What Time to Show Up

Kamloops Surgical Centre will contact you one week prior to your surgery with your expected arrival and surgery times. We ask you to show up 2 hours early unless you are the first patient of the day, and then your check in is one hour prior to surgery.

Inside the Operating Room

You will walk across the hall from your admission room to the operating room. Your operating room nurses and technicians will greet you, confirm your procedure and identify the exact site of the surgery. Don't be alarmed if they ask what you are having done; they just want to make sure the consent form is accurate.

You will be placed on the operating table under a nice hot air blanket. Before you go to sleep you will have a BP cuff, oxygen monitor, and ECG monitor connected. The anesthesiologist will start an intravenous drip and inject the medications when it is time to go to sleep. Quite often you are asked to breathe some oxygen through a mask as you given the anesthetic. The staff remains with you throughout your procedure and escort you to the recovery room with the anesthesiologist.

The Recovery Room

Most daycare patients at Kamloops Surgical Centre will be cared for in the recovery room for between one and six hours post-surgery. Your time in the recovery area depends on your procedure, duration, and pain and nausea requirements.

The recovery area is fully equipped to monitor patients after surgery and the nurse is observing you at all times. You will have an IV line in your arm or wrist to provide fluids and receive medications. You may also have a mask over your face to provide oxygen.

Many people feel groggy right after an operation but the newest generation of anesthetic drugs wear off quite quickly. It's possible to have some nausea and vomiting, but every effort is made to prevent these. The nurse will administer as much medication for pain control as you require. Our nurses have considerable experience at making patients comfortable while minimizing the side effects of the various drugs.

When you are ready to go the nurse will give specific, detailed instructions to you and the responsible adult picking you up. They will discuss optimizing your pain control, care of the surgical site, and what to do if any complications develop. Only when our medical staff has assessed you will you be discharged.

Please make arrangements for your ride to be available at any time and we will call them approximately 30 minutes before you are ready to leave.

Rides for overnight patients should arrive at the clinic by 7:00 on the morning after surgery.

>>Step 3: After You Leave




Powered by SiteCMTM— web content management made easy by ideaLEVER Solutions. | Copyright © 2010 - 2012, Kamloops Surgical Centre Ltd. | Designed by Communication Solutions Inc.