Getting Ready For Surgery: Your Questions Answered

Are you getting ready to have surgery soon? Preparing your body and mind can make a big difference in your stress before surgery and your surgical recovery after.

General surgeons at Franciscan Physician Network answer common questions people ask on Reddit about preparing for upcoming surgery.

“The best way to prepare for surgery? I like to tell patients that I compare it to running a marathon,” Jessica Blandford, MD, a board-certified general surgeon at Franciscan Health hospitals in Munster and Dyer. “You never go into running a marathon untrained, and you shouldn't go into surgery unprepared.”

Why Do I Need An Exam Before My Surgery?   

“Preparing for surgery is a whole different ball game from what it used to be or what people expect,” said Joshua Kays, MD, a Franciscan Health general surgeon and surgical oncologist in Indianapolis and Mooresville. “One of the first things you're going to do is we have most people meet with our preoperative clinic. They're going to do a full screening.”  

This preoperative screening takes a look at your patient's overall health and readiness for surgery. It can include looking at risk factors and medical history, having a physical exam, and taking various tests to identify any potential risks or complications.

Your surgeon also will meet with you to review the procedure. This may be done at the preoperative visit or at a separate surgical consult.

“I go over the procedure, I go over the details, risks, benefits, all of that,” said Dr. Kays. “And that can be a very intimidating time because we throw a lot of information at you. I always encourage questions at any time.”  

Should I Bring A Family Member Or Caregiver To Preoperative Appointments?   

Doctor’s visits before your surgery can cover many details about surgery, recovery timelines, and what to expect once you're home. It may feel overwhelming when you’re the one facing the procedure. That’s why bringing a family member or caregiver to your preoperative appointments can be helpful. 

“Bringing family members and caregivers are exceptionally valuable to these preoperative appointments for a number of reasons,” said Dr. Kays. “First off, we're going to throw a lot of information at you and having a second person to hear all that can be helpful to remind you later.” 

There’s another benefit to having family member attend, he added.

“They can come up with questions that maybe the patient didn't think of, especially when it comes to aftercare,” he said. “The patient's usually thinking about, this is my problem or disease, this is the surgery, this is how I recover. They're not thinking about the things they're going to need or the help they're going to need after surgery.”  

What If I Have More Questions After My Surgery Consult?

“There are times patients still have questions, so I do want my patients to call anytime,” said Jovenel Cherenfant, MD, general surgeon at Franciscan Health Munster. “When I say anytime, I mean: If it crosses your mind and you think it's important and the question’s is not answered in the pamphlet that we give you or in our pre-visit, then just call.”

How Long Will It Take To Schedule My Surgery?

“For an elective surgery, you can typically plan a few weeks from the time you meet your surgeon and make the decision to operate until you get to the operating room,” Dr. Kays said. “There are multiple reasons for that. One is we want to get you into our preoperative clinic. We want them to do that full assessment to make sure you're going to tolerate anesthesia and that you're not going to have any major events during the operation. Another one is surgeon and operating room availability. And then lastly, it has to go through an insurance process and an approval process, and that typically takes two weeks, sometimes even a little bit longer for elective cases.”

Am I At Extra Risk For Surgery?

Some of the common risk factors for surgery include:

Your age

“We know with advanced age you have a decreased physiologic reservoir, so recovery is going to be a little bit more difficult,” Dr. Blandford said. “One way to overcome that is by staying nice and active preoperatively, making sure you have good nutrition, supplementing with protein shakes, just to make sure that you're getting enough caloric intake. “

Diabetes

“Whenever we have diabetes, the increased blood sugar will increase your risk of any kind of post-surgical infection and complication,” Blandford said. “So, keeping a nice tight glucose control during that time of surgery. And you really want to aim for keeping your blood glucose less than 200 in that postoperative period.

Chronic diseases

Other chronic diseases, including heart disease, lung disease and kidney disease, can also put you at increased risk for complications from surgery.

“We'd want to make sure that you follow up with your specialist who follows you closely and make sure that all of those are optimized so that you have the best outcomes from the surgery,” she said.

Being overweight or obese

“Weight loss is always important just because we know that obesity increases your risks of DVTs (blood clots) and increases the risks of complications such as wound infections and healing process,” Dr. Blandford said.” So weight loss, staying active around the time of surgery is also important.”

Being undernourished

“Finally, anything that can harm your nutrition, so malnutrition, whether that's because you have a cancerous process or because something that's affecting your ability to eat,” she said. “Try to make sure that you have protein shakes. Keeping a nice balanced diet and trying to be as healthy as you can with your diet will also help lower those risks.”

Smoking or using substances

“If you do any kind of risky behavior like smoking, drinking, you want to try to cut that out two, three weeks before surgery for the healing purposes as well,” she said.

Being inactive

“The best thing to do preoperatively is to keep an active lifestyle,” she said.

Should I Stop Exercising Before Surgery?

“One of the common misconceptions that I think I get a lot of is people say, ‘I should be resting for surgery,’ and that's about probably the worst thing you can do,” Dr. Kays said. “You want to think of surgery as like running a marathon. Not that you have to go out and join a gym or start training, but you want to start building yourself up. So I recommend a 20-minute walk every day. Just stay active, live your normal life, increase your exercise a little bit, even just a daily 20-minute walk. You'll start to see benefits of it and it'll help your body prepare for the fight it's going to go through and the healing process of surgery.

Should I Change My Diet Before Surgery?

Dr. Kays supports cleaning up your diet, focusing on less processed food.

“Again, go back to the protein,” he said. “They're the building blocks of our body, so focusing on getting enough protein in every day.”

Why Do I Have To Stop Smoking Before Surgery?

“If you smoke or use nicotine, stop smoking or using nicotine. That is one of the biggest impediments to healing that we know of,” Dr. Kays said.

Can I Use Marijuana Before Surgery?

“We advise people not to have any substance in their system before surgery. So if you're going to have surgery, we would ask you to not stay away from cannabis for least a couple of days beforehand,” Dr. Cherenfant said. “Make sure everything is out of your system. That way your general anesthesia has no interference with what's already in your system.”

Can I Have Surgery If I’m On My Period?

“Usually if it's not a pelvic surgery then that's no problem, although the effect of the anesthesia can sometimes affect you or the length of your period and the intensity of it,” Dr. Cherenfant said. “But usually having your period shouldn't stop you from having non-pelvic surgeries. If it's something that will affect it, the surgery, usually your surgeon will tell you, your gynecologist or your OBGYN will tell you.”

What Can I Do If I’m Nervous About Having Surgery?

“If this is your first time having surgery and you're nervous, you're going to be at ease,” Dr. Cherenfant said. “What I would think about would be millions of people have had surgery before me, and they've done fine and everything went well. So why not me? I trust my doctors. I've seen them before surgery. I've met them. I have confidence in them, so I know they can get me through.”

What Happens At The Hospital On The Day Of My Surgery?

“We usually bring you in two hours before your surgery,” Dr. Cherenfant said. “That's time to put, you get checked in, the nurses have to put the IV in, you have to meet your anesthesiologist. So there are quite a few things that go on before your surgery.

“During that time, if everything else is done and you're just waiting, that's when you start thinking about things. I tell people to bring a book to read, or if you're on TikTok or you have your iPhone or you have your phone, just go online. Take your mind off what's coming and just relax and be positive.”

How Long Does Surgery Take?

“Some procedures can be as long as eight hours. Some procedures can be as short as 20 minutes,” said Dr. Cherenfant. “I treat all of them the same way. You cannot ever be too careful, but in surgery, we say a chance to cut is a chance to cure.”

Do I Need To Plan For Care After Surgery?

“When we get older patients or older family members, one of the things I like to bring up is a short-term rehab stay,” Dr. Kays said. “It's not that we're trying to get people into nursing homes, but if you don't have the help at home to succeed, it's going to make your recovery harder. And sometimes just a week in one of those rehab facilities can make the world of difference, especially if you don't have someone who's at home or around who's able to help you as needed.”

Is It OK To Call My Surgeon With Questions About Surgery?

“Asking questions is probably the biggest thing you can do to prepare for surgery,” Dr. Kays said. “Bring a notebook, come in with some questions, write the answers down. If you have questions afterwards, if you're looking things up on Google or whatever and something pops up, don't be afraid to reach back out to your surgeon and say, ‘I read this, I heard that. What do you think?’ We're happy to answer questions. We want not only for it to be a successful surgery, we want you to be comfortable and we want you to be fully informed and know what's going on. Because the more informed a patient is, the more they can prepare, and I believe the better the outcome they're going to have.”