St. Vincent Charity Hospital in Cleveland(Pre-Testing)
Hi Earl, I had surgery at St.V 14 mo. ago. Dr. Sonpal assisted w/my surgery. As far as pre-testing goes, expect bloodwork, pulmonary testing, psych. eval, possible sleep study, and others as the Dr. determines.
I'm assuming you're having open surg., as I did. You should ask about the pain pump that numbs the abdominal wall. I didn't have it, and that first afternoon was no fun. However, by that night, I was out of bed, and pain levels were manageable. GOOOOD pain meds!
Like most things, I think the anxiety over WLS was worse than actually living through it.
Pre and post-op education is excellent there, and I'd recommend the program to others, just follow the rules. Doug
Earl,
I had pre-testing done at St. V's about two weeks ago. The day included the following: (1) filling out papers, (2) getting blood drawn, (3) providing your medical history to a nurse and then to a doctor, (4) an EKG, (5) breathing test, and (6) about 2 hours of nurses or dieticians talking about what the do's and don'ts before and after surgery.
No pain was involved -- other than the whole day could have been compressed into a morning.
Lisa