ABOUT YOUR SURGERY

Preoperative tests 

Prior to surgery, we will usually order a chest x-ray, EKG and blood tests. Depending on your health, we may need to order more extensive testing to determine if your body will tolerate the stress of surgery. Women with serious medical conditions may be asked to see their primary care physician for medical clearance and/or to meet with an anesthesiologist prior to surgery.

Donating your own blood  

We give our surgical patients the option to donate their own blood, which may be given back to them during the procedure. When patients receive their own blood (as opposed to blood from a blood bank) they have a smaller risk of getting a blood-borne infection. However, we rarely need to give any blood during surgery. The risk of significant blood loss during most of the surgical procedures is approximately 1-3 percent, so we do not recommend all patients donate their own blood before surgery. The risk of getting an infection from a blood transfusion is estimated to be 1 per 100,000 transfusions. So in the rare instance when a patient needs to receive blood during surgery, she is very unlikely to get infected. 

Preventing infection 

All physicians and hospital staff are trained to prevent infection with the AIDS virus and other types of infections. 

The day of surgery

Please do not eat or drink anything after midnight on the night before surgery. On the morning of surgery, you may take your regular medications with a sip of water, unless your physician or anesthesiologist tells you otherwise. We will provide special instructions about managing medications around the time of surgery to patients with diabetes or those on steroids.

Our office scheduler will let you know what time to check in through the Hospital Admissions Office (usually about two hours before your scheduled time for surgery). Once admitted, a member of the anesthesia staff will visit you. You will have an IV started through a vein in your arm, and you will be given preoperative medications. Some surgical procedures can be performed while you still are awake, but no surgery will begin until you are completely under anesthesia.

We encourage you to come to the hospital with responsible family members or friends. We will keep them updated as to how you are doing after your surgery.

Your Hospital stay  

If you need to stay in the hospital after your surgery, your doctor will tell you this during your preoperative visit. Most patients will need to spend at least one night in the hospital after surgery. We will not send patients home from the hospital until they are ready to go, which means she is eating regular food without difficulty; using only oral pain medication (i.e. no need for IV pain medicine); has no fever; and is able to walk in the halls on her own. Many of our patients go home from the hospital with a catheter in their bladder. However, we will not send a patient home until she is comfortable with the management of the catheter.  

Going home

Make plans to have someone drive you home from the hospital - you should not drive yourself.  

Driving

You should never drive if you are using prescription pain medicine. We encourage you to refrain from driving after your surgery until you feel you could react quickly in traffic.  

Wound care

Do not douche or use tampons after surgery. To protect your clothing from vaginal discharge or bleeding, you may wear a mini-pad or standard sanitary napkin. You also may use a squirt bottle filled with saline solution to wash off after going to the bathroom. Spotting and reddish discharge after surgery is normal. Call your doctor if you experience bright red bleeding, increasing pain or increasing redness around your incision. Try to get your incisions as dry as possible after taking a shower. A hair dryer on the "cool" setting can be useful for this. Do not take a bath until your physician lets you know you can. If you have an incision on your abdomen,  it is normal to feel occasional sudden "tugging" pains for several months after surgery. We encourage you to call us to ask about anything that seems out of the ordinary after your surgery. 

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