1. Have nothing to
eat or drink after 12 midnight except for prescription medications
you have been told to take with a sip of water.
2. Leave home with
plenty of time to spare as traffic around Piedmont Hospital and
in the parking decks can be amazingly congested even
before daylight. If
your surgery is at Buckhead Ambulatory Surgery Center there will be less
traffic.
3. Follow the instructions you were given about where
to report. If you get lost, call a hospital operator by dialing “O” on
any hospital telephone.
4. Once you arrive at the proper place,
you will be checked in, your paperwork will be reviewed and about
an hour before the scheduled
start of the surgery,
you will be given injection(s) to help you relax. If your situation calls
for them, elastic stockings will be placed on your legs to prevent blood
clots later.
5.
You may have an additional Hibiclens wash and your operative site skin
may need to be shaved to minimize pain due to hairiness when the
dressing
is removed
after surgery.
6. After all preparations are completed, you will be
dressed in a hospital gown and moved to a stretcher and taken to
the preoperative area where
an IV will
be started and all of the paperwork will be checked again. If you
are having an “epidural”, it may be placed in the preoperative
area. Next you will be transferred onto a narrower table in the operating
room. Before surgery
begins, and EKG pad will be placed on your back, a blood pressure
cuff will be placed on your arm, usually on the side opposite your
IV, and
an electrocautery
grounding pad will be placed on your leg or thigh to allow us to
us an electric needle to stop bleeding during surgery, and a device
that
looks somewhat like
a plastic clothespin will be placed on your finger or thumb nail
to monitor the oxygen in your blood. Since Piedmont Hospital is a “teaching
hospital”,
I will have the advantage of a surgical resident assisting me with
your surgery. This will help make your surgery safer and quicker
and allows me a chance to
pass my experience and knowledge along to others. The resident will
introduce him/herself to you before surgery and will often have an
opportunity to see
you again before you leave the hospital.
7. The skin in the area of
surgery will be sterilized and anesthesia will be initiated either
by injection into the epidural catheter
taped to your
back or
by injection of local anesthetic around the area of the hernia,
or both.
8. After checking to be sure that the anesthesia is effective,
the incision will be made and the repair carried out, often using
mesh
or synthetic
sutures. After
the deep layers of the repair are finished, the skin will be closed
with staples or paper tapes and a bandage will be applied.
9.
You will then go to a recovery area until discharge criteria are
met, usually several hours later. There are several discharge
criteria:
- You must be taking at least liquids by mouth, after
which your IV can come out.
- Your pain must be adequately controlled
with oral pain medications. You may need injectable pain medications
initially, but switch
to oral medications
as
soon as possible
- You should be ambulating
10. The nurses at Piedmont Hospital
are among the best anywhere, and they will take very good care
of you. They have extensive
experience in caring
for patients
who have had hernia surgery and they know what to look for ad
how to
tell when patients are - are not - able to go home safely. They
will contact
us if they
have any reservations about the appropriateness of your going
home. If you are not discharged on the day of surgery, we will
check
on you early
the
next morning
and probably will be able to discharge you then.
11. At least
95% of reasonably healthy patients of all ages undergoing umbilical
or groin hernia surgery will go home on the day of
surgery, and less than
1% will need to return to the hospital - even briefly - for
any reason prior to
their scheduled office follow-up.
12. During the several hours
following the surgery, you should review the discharge instructions
we have given you at least
twice. If anything
is
unclear, check
with your nurse right away. If he/she is in doubt also, we
will be contacted for clarification. A certain amount of
insecurity about
going home is
common, but there is no need to be uneasy about questions
that you haven’t asked
or that we haven’t yet answered. When in doubt, ask
your nurse; if still in doubt, have the nurse call us. Do
not leave
until you are sure that you
know what you are supposed to do.
13. At the time of discharge,
you should be sure to take with you:
- Discharge instruction
sheet (yellow) from the hospital
- Any prescriptions that we
have given you.
- Gauze pads and tape for dressing changes.
- All medications
and other personal belongings that you brought with you to the
hospital.
WHEN IN DOUBT ASK! |
