To ask anyone in the NHS how day surgery lists are determined?

40 years ago, our darling 4yr old was prepped and ready for lung-tumour removal at GOSH and, 2 days in a row, had the op postponed very last minute as the 'heart/lung machine' that was needed had been taken by a child with a more urgent problem. It was distressing for us all but even more so for the families of the poor children brought in as emergencies. We were lucky and had success at the third attempt, but I do sometimes think about the others, even after all this time 😥. I would never ever question decisions made by informed medical teams as to the day's list, however stressful! Hope it all went well eventually @IceyBisBack

Yes. So if they've had all the blood work, swabs, consent. Everything prepped, patients can be in theatre ASAP and time saved.

I had a haemorrhoidectomy and removal of an anal skin tag back in 1984, and I think I was last on the list for exactly the same reason.

So pleased that you were in theatre for mid-morning as planned and that your worries about going down at 6pm didn’t come to pass.

And you’re aware that the OP is ND ?

We were told in advance that DH's surgery would be the last of the day as he had tested positive for MRSA and the theatre would need more thorough cleaning afterwards.

She didn’t ask for help. She just sat there waiting for someone to take her to the loo

My son needed a gastrostomy aged 3. He has severe complex needs and ASD. Arrived at 7am, by 8am a 18 month old baby went down. We waited and at 3.30pm a surgeon came to see us and said the baby's surgery had not gone to plan and my boys needed to be cancelled..... I was devastated as we'd prepared our son so much..he had little understanding.
....imagine the devastation of the parents of that baby though...Still to this day I think about that baby and hope they are okay. Tat was 12 years ago.

Adults can take themselves to the toilet all hospital toilets have pull cords and you just go steady. Its unusual to be desperate for the toilet as soon as you wake up from surgery as you've been nil by mouth. Minor surgery uses very minimal anesthetic.

You do yes. And if you’ve never been in hospital before, or had surgery before you don’t know what is OK and what isn’t. Anaesthetic has a different effect on different people - some people don’t cope as well as others and are shaky on their feet for some time afterwards. That’s why patients are not discharged until the staff are happy they’re able to cope, so why would you think asking for help with going to the loo is unusual ?

I have a latex allergy and after begging diagnosed with breast cancer I had two separate surgeries in November and December last year - lumpectomy followed by mastectomy, both as a day case. And on both occasions I was first on the list. The surgeon came round prior to surgery, soon after admission to the day ward and advised I was first to be done and when I asked why, he confirmed that because I had a latex allergy it was easier to set up theatre for that first.

Why would you need a nurse to take you to the loo?

Or just ask ‘am I ok to get up to go to the loo?’

you don’t just sit there waiting for someone to take you - you’re a grown adult. You’ve a voice and a call bell

Try sleeping propped upright, it’ll really help with any swelling and blockage feeling (had lots of ENT surgeries so speaking from experience!)

Get a grip. After surgery involving a general anaesthetic you’re not sure what you can and can’t do. The least you can expect is a nurse to either take you to the toilet or advise that you’re fine to do it yourself.

My husband is always first of the day for surgeries, we think because he's allergic to latex! So I assume that's something that gets taken into account too.

For both times I had an elective c-section, I was done first apparently on the basis that there were no emergencies needing attention before me and my surname begins with an A.

@Rosscameasdoody FESS - Functional endoscopic sinus surgery - it’s the procedure the op had. They’ve used the term themselves either in this thread or one of their others.

And the drugs are eliminated pretty quickly. Historically they hung around longer, but not so much these days. Doesn’t stop people blaming the anaesthetic though, but it’s about lazy to make it so simplistic - there’s a lot more going on than ‘just’ the anaesthetic and It is more of a post-operative phenomenon. The physiological stress response is the release of inflammatory mediators/stress hormones that can leave you feeling rough and the options for reducing that for some procedures is limited.

The ‘anaesthetic’ also consists of a whole bunch of drugs that aren’t actually ‘the anaesthetic’ so there are pain killers (opioids often), steroids (used for their antiemetic properties) etc that can all contribute to feeling pretty funky. Drives me potty that people still just blame the anaesthetic.

They can also be done with an epidural and sedation rather than general anaesthetic. For most surgery the biggest risk is anaesthetic - particularly as you get older, but having said that they are the safest they’ve ever been and there are pain free alternatives for those with underlying conditions which increase the risk.

What ??!!

Nope. In and out of hospital all my life due to congenital disabilty. Last surgery was a mastectomy for breast cancer in December as a day case. Was in theatre by 8am and home by 4pm. I was in surgery for in excess of four hours. Had pain in my shoulders and brain fog lasting for two days or so after surgery and was assured that this was down to the way anaesthetic works its way out of your body. You’re not being clever by using abbreviations - what is FESS ?

Yeah. This has been addressed way upthread. We’ve moved on to actual support now OP has had her surgery.

It's sometimes if they've done all the necessary swabs etc. Not all patients are totally ready to go.

Well @ScuderiaSedici as someone who sat in the car park in labour with first baby having a panic attack and refusing to go in. You did brilliantly. Hopefully this procedure does the trick for you

Well I typed all that out and now see that you’ve already had the op @ScuderiaSedici
Hope you are feeling OK today. I would also suggest that if you are advised to have any medical treatment in future that you tell the medical staff all your concerns and particularly let them know that you are autistic and need to have things explained to you clearly, it does help.

The anaesthetic drugs will be long gone by today. People don’t just have anaesthetics in isolation very often….it is for a procedure. An element of the fatigue/woolly feeling will be due to having had your brain interfered with but, although sinus surgery isn’t wildly stimulating, you do get a bit of a physiological stress response to the surgery and some of the other (not strictly anaesthetic) drugs can make you feel a bit funky, combined with the effect of fatigue from the anxiety in the build up, fasting for a bit etc. The anaesthetic drugs I suspect most of us use for an FESS are all pretty short acting and cleared quickly.