Surgical Admissions and Family Waiting

Wear comfortable clothing to the hospital. Please do not wear fingernail polish or makeup, especially eye makeup, which may cause irritation during surgery. Please leave all valuables at home, including jewelry, wigs, and contact lenses. The hospital cannot be responsible for valuables.

Once you enter the front door of the hospital, have all but one of the people with you wait in the main lobby until your surgery is over. One family member or friend may accompany you until you go to surgery.

As you will have already pre-registered when you were seen by anesthesiology, you should go directly to the receptionist desk for same day admission surgery. Check in with the receptionist.

When it is time for you to get ready for surgery, the receptionist will call for you and escort you to your bed in the preoperative area. In this area you will put on a hospital gown, have an IV started, and receive any medications ordered by your surgeon.

When in the preoperative area you can request medications to help with any anxiety, however the anesthesiologist will carefully evaluate you to be sure some sedation is safe based on your cardiac and pulmonary function.

When it is time for you to go into the operating room, all family and friends should wait in the waiting area. Posted surgery times are only estimates and can be highly variable.

Surgery usually takes between two and four hours. The surgeons will not contact your family during the operation, but will visit with them immediately upon completion of the surgery.

Post Anesthesia Care Unit

When your surgery is finished, you will be moved to Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) where you will wake up (if you have any respiratory or cardiac problems, you may be transferred to the intensive care unit instead).

The nursing staff will be testing your breathing, blood pressure and pain control. It is important for you to be able to communicate how much pain you are having. We use a pain scale to communicate pain:

It will be helpful to give a number on this scale when you describe your pain to the nursing staff. If you do not feel comfortable using this scale, you may describe your pain with this verbal scale:

• No Pain
• Mild Pain
• Moderate Pain
• Severe Pain
• Very Severe Pain

Patient Manual Index

• Introduction
• Questions to Ask Your Insurance Company
• Your Health Care Team
• Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass
• Adjustable Gastric Banding Procedure
• Sleeve Gastrectomy
• Duodenal Switch
• Revisional Procedures
• Path to Surgery
• The First Clinic Visit
• The Preoperative Surgical Clinic Visit
• The Preoperative Educational Clinic Visit
• Preparation Instructions for Surgery
• Day of Surgery and Postoperative Stay
• Hospital Course Following a Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass
• Hospital Course Following an Adjustable Gastric Banding Procedure
• Post Surgery Follow-up Care
• Potential Complications of Surgery