Planning for a Medical Procedure: Preparation

Getting all of the details sorted out before a surgery can be just as stressful as thinking about the surgery itself!

The necessary tasks that I encountered fit roughly into three categories, which also makes them a little easier to think about.

1) Medical Preparation (after you’ve made the surgery decision with your doctor)

Many procedures will require some sort of imaging (MRI, CT Scan, etc) and a follow up appointment with your doctor to review the results beforehand. Also, despite many imaging centers saying they will send the results to your doctor, it is a good idea to get your own copy and take them with you to your appointment.

At the follow up appointment, make sure to take along any paperwork you need filled out for your employer (discussed more below). You should also talk to your doctor at this point about whether there are any prescriptions you could get filled prior to your procedure, rather than waiting to fill them when you are leaving the hospital.

Most surgeries will require bloodwork and an EKG (and possibly other tests) performed by your general physician within 30 days of your surgery in order to ensure you are healthy enough for the procedure. (This, of course, will also require paperwork that needs to reach both your doctor and the hospital.)

In the final week or few days before your procedure, you receive a phone call from the hospital to complete pre-op registration and planning. They ask a lot of questions regarding your health, including any and all medications you take, and they inform you of any special instructions for the day or two before your surgery. These special instructions could include fasting, which of your medications to stop taking, and specific soap to use to reduce risk of infection in the hospital. Additionally, you may be required to go to the hospital a day or two early for a blood type test (I even received a wristband that I was not allowed to remove to link me to the results).

2) Administrative Preparation

Talk to your boss and HR representative to discuss your options and plan for the time off you will require to recover. This may involve paperwork that you will need your doctor to fill out, so do this as soon as possible!

Call your insurance company to discuss what the pre-approval requirements are for your procedure, as well as prescriptions. Your doctor’s office will usually handle the surgery pre-approvals, but you may need to initiate any pre-approvals for prescriptions or other aspects. Pain prescriptions are heavily regulated, so having those filled may require some extra steps which are good to be prepared for ahead of time. Since I am on my own insurance, I even got a letter notarized to authorize my parents to fill and pick up prescriptions for me. It didn't end up being necessary, but it allowed me a little peace of mind leading up to the surgery.

Have meetings with your co-workers to determine and arrange who is going to be taking over your responsibilities while you are out. If you have time, I would even suggest preparing detailed instructions for tasks other will perform in order to make the process as easy as possible for those who are taking on additional work for you. (These types of instructions also end up being useful if you are ever training someone to take over your job if you get promoted or are moving on.)

If you will be working from home at all, think about what technology would make that easier and talk to your IT department about what they might be able to set you up with. I was able to get an external monitor to link to my laptop at home so that I could have the bigger (and second) screen I am accustomed to using at work.

3) Personal Preparation

Keeping in mind that surgery and the following recovery make it understandably difficult (or even impossible) to get anything done, it’s a good idea to make sure that any time sensitive tasks in your life are complete (or planned for) before your surgery.

In the couple weeks before my surgery, I got a haircut that would be easy to maintain and take care of, requested mail forwarding (though USPS following through on your request is apparently a crapshoot), and cancelled or redirected schedule deliveries that I get periodically.

During the weekend before my surgery I ran last minute errands, did laundry, cleaned my apartment, cut my nails, packed, and sent an email to family and friends so they could receive updates from my parents.

Bonus!) Items I found most useful during my recovery

Cane: For obvious reasons, like not falling over.

Grabber: You don’t realize how often you drop things until you aren’t allowed to pick them up.

Grocery Delivery: Even now, two months post surgery, I would need to have someone take me grocery shopping, as I wouldn’t be able to reach low shelves or carry any of the bags, so grocery delivery has been wonderful!

Back Pillow: I still take a back pillow with me when I go to restaurants or other places out and about, as I can’t get enough of that sweet sweet back support.

Detachable Showerhead: When I couldn’t stand long enough to take a shower, this was key.

Family and Friends - I cannot stress enough how helpful and loving my family and friends have been through this whole process. I literally could not have done it without them. Even if you never need surgery, I hope you have people in your life who are as awesome as the ones in mine.

All of this prep allowed me to breathe easy knowing I had done everything I could to prepare. Of course, life (and more specifically surgery and recovery) is not easily controlled, so things still happened that deviated from or negated my planned. I’ve found, though, that even with the awareness that things are going to go awry, taking the time to carefully plan can significantly reduce the stress of the unknown, and in my mind that makes it worthwhile.