Tomorrow I am scheduled to have what everyone assures me is a minor medical procedure. My ENT says it’ll take 20 minutes. It is supposed to take place at 8 am. This morning, I called the doctor and spoke to the receptionist because I had a couple minor questions. She answered them and assured me that a nurse would be calling me to give instructions on what I need to do. In retrospect, I should have insisted they call me at work, but the receptionist told me they’d call my home number and leave a message. That seemed fine to me.
Anyway, I just got home and listened to the message. They want me to be there tomorrow at 6.30. Excuse me? My appointment is for 8. This is the first time anyone has ever said anything about 6.30 to me. It is now too late to call the office.
SO. My question, for any MDs, RNs, or other people knowledgeable of the medical establishment: did the nurse who left the message read the wrong thing, or am I really supposed to be an hour and a half early for a 20 minute procedure?
I’m not a medical person, but the two times I’ve been for surgery (both about 1 hour procedures), they wanted me there 1.5-2 hours early for check in. Most of that time was spent just waiting, though.
Check in way in advance has been the norm for me, too. Look at it this way–if she was wrong, oh, well, you are there too early. If she wasn’t, and you aren’t there, you will probably have to reschedule. Bring a book and try to chill.
Well, I guess I will be there early. I am now quite grumpy about this, not only because…duh, getting up at 5.30 isn’t exactly party fun time for me, but also because I can’t eat anything before the surgery. If I’m asleep, I’m not hungry. If I’m awake and bored at the waiting room, this will suckity suck suck.
I had to have a cyst removed from my wrist several years ago, and had to be at the hospital at 6:00am. I am not a morning person under the best of circumstances, and being hungry and not being able to have my coffee contributed to my general grumpiess. I was also terrified - the anestheologist had told me the day before that they would not be giving me a general anesthetic, but a nerve block with sedation. I didn’t want to be awake - I wanted to be out! I tried to argue about it, but was told the risk of a general anestheic were higher and weren’t warranted for a quick procedure such as mine was to be.
Got to the hospital, where they had me change into a gown, gave me a blanket and paper slippers and sent me into a room with about 30 other people also dressed in blankets, gowns and paper slippers. After about 45 minutes, a tech called me in to take my temperature and blood pressure. After getting his readings, he said “the doctor may not want to do your surgery today - your blood pressure is high.” I glared at him and replied “I’m hungry, I haven’t had my coffee and you’ve got me sitting naked, covered with a blanket, in a room full of strangers, and Rush fucking Limbaugh is on the TV. Of course my blood pressure is high!”
Back into the waiting room. Another 45 minute wait, and my name is called again. I go out to see my doctor, who informs me he had looked at my ultrasound again and, since the procedure was going to take longer than he had originally expected, they would be using a general anesthetic after all. Yippie!
When they took my blood pressure again, it was almost normal.
Huh. When I went in for mine, I went to the clinic about 10 minutes before my appointment, kept my clothes on the whole time, got a few shots pre-surgery to numb and prevent bleeding, and proceeded to watch myself get hacked up (the weirdest thing ever is watching yourself being cut without feeling anything at all AND without bleeding; I kept asking if he was really cutting me until he showed me the chunk of skin he’d removed). I drove myself home about a half hour later.
I would definitely be complaining loudly about not being clearly told at the time the appointment was made that you had to be there 1.5 hours early. It’s not reasonable of them to expect you to rearrange your schedule at the last minute.
Sometimes they have to do stuff like take blood, medical history, vitals, etc. to see if you’re up to having the procedure done.
For instance…I had a not-so-minor procedure done (had a tubal ligation). They had me come in early for all that prep stuff. Unfortunately, they got blood samples switched in the lab and thought I was in acute renal failure, so the whole thing was cancelled (mayhem ensued).
Not that any of this would happen to you, but they need to check stuff out before they start with the probing.
I know you can’t eat, but are there any restrictions on drinking some water? If you could drink a glass of water, that might go some way to killing the hungries in the morning.
Of course, this is probably all over with and done by now. Hope all went well.
IANAD, but in my experience, for any kind of surgery, unless it’s extraordinarily minor, my doctors have said don’t eat OR DRINK anything a certain period of time before the operation. If having general anaesthesia, the reason is clear. But they also want to be prepared in case anything goes wrong, so they want the patient to have a completely empty stomach. At least that’s what I’ve been told.
And I second the notion that the doctor should have warned ahead of time of the required arrival time. If you’ve not had surgery before, you don’t think to ask. The office should not have assumed that you know.
Both when I had my wisdom teeth out, and when I underwent a septoplasty, they told me that it’s because under anasthesia, people can be more prone to puking, and they don’t want you aspirating vomit and creating complications that way.
For the former procedure, they almost dropped the hammer on me for having had a friggin’ dixie cup of water after I brushed my teeth about three hours earlier.
It may be that they need current lab work. They often want to know the results of an up to the minute complete blood count or CBC, electrolytes, even liver studies and possibly a chest x-ray. Its more efficient for them to have it done during that visit and put directly into the chart that goes to surgery with you.
Having them done even the day before runs the risk of the results not being in the chart on the day of surgery.