Must haves for surgery

can anyone recommend things to bring with you for surgery? I know a lot of people talk about dry lips after surgery.  What else?

Cell phone charger

comfy pants yoga or pajama

Take a pillow that you can hold against your abdomen on the car ride home.

A couple things to consider requesting from your surgical team pre-op to make your post-op experience better!!!

Prior to surgery ask them to put you in reverse trendelenberg position in the PACU to help with the gas pain that many have in their shoulder.

If you deal with nausea after anesthesia ask for antiemetics (anti nausea/vomiting meds) from the anesthesiologist prior to surgery.

Best of luck with your surgery!

Sheila

Can you explain  reverse trendelenberg position in the PACU to help with the gas pain that many have in their shoulder.  I don't know what that is.

Reverse trendelenberg is the lowering of the head of the bed with your feet up in the air, that causes the gases they pump in to stay lower in your body/abdomen instead of going into your shoulder area, it worked for my spouse when they had a re-op which was great because the shoulder pain was way worse than the abdominal pain for her. 

I didn't have shoulder pain. Hopefully you won't either.

hope this makes sense!

I think reverse would mean that you are tilted so that your head is higher and feet are closer to ground.  Is that what you meant?

Reverse trendelenberg is the lowering of the head of the bed with your feet up in the air, that causes the gases they pump in to stay lower in your body/abdomen instead of going into your shoulder area, it worked for my spouse when they had a re-op which was great because the shoulder pain was way worse than the abdominal pain for her. 

I didn't have shoulder pain. Hopefully you won't either.

hope this makes sense!

Biotene makes a moisturizing mouth spray. Please make this a must. . I just had mine on Tuesday. You are not allowed to have anything to drink after surgery until the next day.  This mouth moisture saved me! It is like a small spray of liquid mint. My mouth never got dry, my lips never chapped. It was Definitely a lifesaver

Can the Biotene be purchased anywhere, or does one need to go to a specialty store? If so, where? My surgery is a week from tomorrow so not enough time to buy it on-line. :-)

I got it at Walmart in the mouthwash section

all you need to bring is a change of underwear and a pillow for the trip home

 everything else is supplied by the hospital

 unless you need to make long distance calls use the hospital phone mine had free local call and many hospitals do not allow cell phone use in the hospital and it may disappear  when your sleeping

lip balm  and mouth moisturizes  are supplied  no out side meds will be allowed including gas x which does nothing for the gas pains from surgery , it is not in your stomach but in the space around your organs

 shampoo and deodorant, toothpaste and brush are all supplied

 wearing the robes they give you works best , it is easy for them to put on and remove and you don't need to worry about staining them

 you could bring slippers , but they should be easy to slip on and not slippery to walk in you do not want to fall , they supply socks with rubber on the bottom that works fine

 your surgeon may give you a list of what to bring

mine told me to bring my cpap machine , but the hospital would not let me use it only theirs

don't over think this bring as little as possible     any reading material  should be easy reading , magazines , you will not read much

 and forget about doing any work you will not be able to concentrate  for the first few days to a week from all the drugs