To be worried about partner in hospital?

[NeedingAGoodNap]

My girlfriend went in to get her appendix removed about 3 hours ago. They were expecting the surgery to only take an hour and that she would be awake shortly after but I’ve heard nothing. I know she is probably resting but I’m stressing out!

I just want to know if she is ok! Her mum is there with her but I’m not sure she would update me if anything was going wrong

Do you know she went in on time and there wasn't a delay? Could you give the hospital a call and ask directly?

What was the arrangement about who would contact you to let you know that she was out of theatre?

Can you just text her mom and ask if everything went ok?

I would if I could but I don’t have her mums details

Ring the ward and check if you're worried but she may not even have gone for surgery yet.

She probably just sleeping off the anaesthetic in Recovery. They patient stays there to come round from the anaesthetic and to have pain relief. The op is pretty quick, but recovery takes a while.

The ward wont tell her anything if she's not family

As she has her mum with her the hospital won't be updating you. Have you tried messaging her phone, perhaps her mum has it whilst she's in surgery and recovery? Although the op takes x amount of time recovery takes a bit of time too. I'm sure her mum would find a way to get hold of you if anything had happened, appreciate its stressful waiting though.

If you have arranged for the ward to phone you then they will do this will when she's back on the ward and comfortable. Or your gf will phone you when she gets back on the ward and is awake enough to use her phone. Try not to worry when I had my gallbladder out I was asleep all day when I got back on the ward.

She may have been bumped down the list for an emergency, but she certainly would not feel up to messaging or calling for several hours.

It would likely take longer than an hour from beginning to end too. Surgery itself might only take an hour, but by the time you've added on pre-op checks, anaesthetic, transfer to recovery etc, you're looking at much longer IME. Once in recovery she'll be sleeping off the anaesthetic for ages and won't have access to her phone until she's back on the ward. I wouldn't expect to hear from her for a few hours.

She's probably still in recovery. I work in theatres and recovery and we have this issue all the time because surgeons tell relatives how long the operations takes without considering anaesthetic and recovery time.

She will be fine and you will hear soon. But the ward won't tell you anything as if she isn't back they won't know anything either.

Try not to worry!

She’s ok! There was a delay starting surgery and unfortunately her appendix ruptured, but she is awake and well now. Her mum hasn’t even gotten an update yet as she is waiting for her to be transferred back to the original hospital. What a relief!

Surgery itself may take 1 Hr but there's a whole lot of stuff that happens before and after, when you go down to theatre you have a whole check in process, sometimes a bit of a wait, then the surgery, then post surgery waiting for them to come round from the anaesthesia which is a very variable time period, before you're taken back to the ward.