a few questions

I am scheduled for 1/19 and have a couple of questions. One is that I have a cold with a bad cough and chest congestion. The dostor said not to worry about it, that as long as I dont have a fever the surgery is a go. Does this sound right? The other is I have been told to not eat after midnight the day before.....I read some on here talking about all day fasting the day before. What are your experiences? Thanks for your help

Hey John good luck on your surgery. I guess if your doctor doesn't have a problem with you having a cold then its okay. I would want to make sure you are not having any pneumonia or bronchitis going on. I will let you know that coughing really hurts after surgery. Like a kick in the gut. As for the fasting I just had to be on clear liquids the day prior and then nothing after midnight. Except a swallow of water to take my pills. Good luck. Jean

Hi John. Just follow your dr instructions. My doc said that he would do it as long as there was no wheezing, although I will tell you it hurts like hell to cough after surgery! Every dr is different though. As for the fasting, again, I had a 5 day clear liquid diet before mine, while a friend of mine with a different dr ate mexican at 10:00 the night before. So trust your doctor that he knows whats what. Good luck and you'll do great! Sharon

Hello John My surgery was one week ago and I was with a cold and cough too, without fever. Everything was ok. After surgery they gave me terapy and before a left the hospital on sunday I was great. For the eating, my DR ask for not eat nothing afeter 2 pm the day before just clear liquid. Good luck dear. Vanessa -21

John, The coughing does hurt after surgery, but better to cough than to try not to and end up with pneumonia! As for the diet - the ones I have seen on here that had to do liquids for several days was because their doc wanted to shrink their liver. If you have an enlarged liver (he/she would have told you this already), it could block some of the view of your stomach, since the liver sits in front of the stomach. If you are having lap, this is more important than if you are having open, because they can see better with open. My doc had me have only clear liquids for 24 hours before surgery and do a bowel prep of Phospho Soda (you buy a 90mL bottle over the counter, take half around 5pm the day before surgery and the other half around 8pm - this just makes sure everything is "spic-and-span" for the doctors the next day). It tastes bad and will make you want to at the taste, but the end result is what you are aiming for, right? Hope that helps! Amanda