Day of Surgery Instructions

• Do not eat or drink anything after midnight the night before your surgery, unless otherwise instructed by a surgery center nurse (ie: if you need to take medication, etc). 

• You will check in at the front desk on the first floor of the Cataldo clinic, 217 W. Cataldo, at the time of your arrival given to you the previous day. 

• You will be asked to change into a gown in the pre-op area.  This is where your vital signs will be taken and your IV will be started. 

• Your surgeon and the anesthesiologist for the day will visit you prior to surgery to talk about the procedure and answer any questions you might have. 

• The nurse who will be in the operating room with you (the circulator) will take you from the pre-op area and walk with you down the hall to the operating room.  At this time your family members will be escorted back out to the waiting area.  It is our surgery center’s policy that family members do not accompany patients to the operating room.

• Once in the operating room you will be asked to lay down on the operating table where you will be covered with a warm blanket.  You may be asked to breathe some oxygen through a mask as the anesthesiologist is giving you medication through your IV that will take you off to sleep.  When the procedure is finished you will be taken out to the first phase of recovery where a recovery room nurse will take over your care.

• In phase one you will be assessed for your level of comfort (pain, nausea).  You will begin this phase breathing oxygen from a mask and will be required to be completely off of the oxygen before you move to the second phase of recovery.  You will be allowed to take ice chips by mouth in phase one.  Once you have met certain criteria you will be moved to phase two.

• In phase two of recovery you will be asked to eat and drink and you will be given your first dose of oral pain medication.  This is where your family will be asked to rejoin you so that the recovery room nurse can discuss discharge instructions with them.  Once you are able to hold down food and fluids, have a reasonable level of pain control, and are able to walk on your own accord, you will be discharged to your home or hotel with your family.