Preparing for Surgery – Patient guide

From the patient’s perspective, the period before surgery can be very stressful and full of unknowns. This is why it is crucial to prepare both mentally and physically for the big day.
Of course, you will need to follow your doctor’s instructions before anything else, but there are a couple of things you can do to prepare yourself on a personal level:

Surgery isn’t a passive event in your life. A highly cooperative patient, disciplined and ready before the surgery will always recover faster and have decreased risks towards complications.

How to prepare for surgery physically

  • Even if the surgery itself probably has the goal to reduce pain, you should try to diminish the number of painkillers you take before surgery; it will be easier to manage the pain after surgery. Please ask your doctor before dropping any kind of medication.
  • You need to make you home post-surgery proof, make sure you prepare your house for the period after the surgery, remove rugs and other objects that may cause you to trip over and fell or harm yourself in any way.
  • If you are a smoker, it would be for the best to quit smoking before surgery as well as after surgery, at least until you are fully recovering. You need to understand that smoking reduces healing by 25%.
  • Don’t take aspirins and anti-inflammatory drugs or other similar meds ten days before surgery because such drugs may have a negative effect and can influence the normal blood coagulation.
  • Keep in mind that there aren’t special meds you can take to recover more quickly; the recovery needs to be natural.
  • Most of the times you need to avoid food as well as liquids for at least 8 hours before surgery.

How to prepare for prostate surgery

These were the general notes on preparing for a general surgery, but what do you need to do to prepare yourself for prostate cancer surgery?

  • First of all, you need to make sure this is the decision you want to make. Otherwise, prostate cancer surgery is a relatively simple operation.
  • You need to make sure you flush out any blood thinning medication before the surgery. Bleeding is a risk for any kind of surgery, and this is especially true for prostate cancer surgery, which involves operating around a lot of blood vessels.
  • The day before surgery you will probably need to drink only liquids and drop food intake altogether. Expect a ball-prep with magnesium something similar to an enema but done for the bladder by drinking a special liquid that contains magnesium. Also, expect your doctor not to allow you to drink anything after this prep as well as giving you nothing to eat at least a few hours before your prostate cancer surgery.
  • No matter the surgical technique used (open or robotic) as I said, are relatively simple and painless for most of the patient cases.
5/58 ratings
You find this post Interesting