In today’s world filled with pollution and stress, almost every individual faces health problems and may have to undergo multiple surgeries in their lifetime. The chances of surgery increase with age. If you’ll be undergoing a surgery for the first time, it’s natural for you to feel nervous. But by following some easy tips, you can be mentally well-prepared for your first surgery. Here they are.
1. Understand What Inpatient and Outpatient Surgery is
Understand that you’re an inpatient when you’re admitted formally to a hospital by a doctor’s order. If the doctor hasn’t issued an order to admit you to the hospital as an inpatient, you’re outpatient. In that case, even if you stay in the hospital for a night, you can be an outpatient. Almost 2/3rd of all procedures are performed in outpatient facilities i.e. minor treatment rooms. Outpatient surgeries could include mole removal, small cyst removal, earlobe repair, ingrown toenail treatments, skin tag removal, thread vein treatments and more. Complicated surgeries such as heart transplants are typically inpatient surgeries.
2. Be Prepared for Anaesthesia
Whether you’ll be undergoing a minor or a major surgery, you’re most likely to be applied some form of anaesthesia. Anaesthesiology mainly aims at pain relief.
Three main forms of anaesthesia are: 1. General anaesthesia with which you become unconscious and feel no sensations. 2. Regional anaesthesia which numbs the area of your body where the surgery will be performed. With regional anaesthesia, you may or may not be awake. 3. Local anaesthesia which numbs only the tissue around the location of the surgery.
3. Learn about Your Diet to be Taken Just Before the Surgical Procedure
Your surgeon may ask you to stop eating and drinking for a specific time before your surgery. This is because solid or liquid food in your stomach might, in rare situations, enter your lungs when you’re under anaesthesia. In some situations, you cannot eat but can drink water.
4. Become Healthy before Your Surgery
You should become as healthy as you can before a surgery according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists. For this, you should eat well, get enough sound sleep, and quit smoking. Smoking is highly likely to cause complications after a surgery, such as infections, pneumonia and even heart attack.
5. Learn about Things to Leave at Home
You must not wear contact lenses during your surgery. Also, you should avoid wearing makeup and should leave jewelry and other valuables at home. Consult your medical team about dentures or other prosthetics if you wear them.
Once you are well prepared for the surgery, you’re hardly going to feel nervous and can undergo the surgery confidently. So, have you started preparing?