Being weighed before general anaesthetic

[Oldtoady]

Ho

had anyone had recent surgery that required a general anaesthetic, and if so we’re you weighed before the op, or just asked to state your weight?

Is not weird for me. I had a serious eating disorder and being weighed is very distressing for me

You could ask not to be told @Oldtoady
I think you should read @Greybeardy's post. It should hopefully reassure you as to why it is so absolutely necessary for your safety that the anaesthetist needs to know your accurate weight.

At my c section they just asked me my weight. I guess it if seemed off they would have weighed me?

I was weighed. Ask them to weigh you but not tell you the weight. Look away when they do it.

Have complications in surgery that may kill you or be weighed? Weight distresses you more?

Tell them your history and ask how they will manage it. Im sure you're not the first.

Good luck with your operation OP.

@Oldtoady I entirely understand how you feel. The times I've been weighed at the hospital I've either not been able to hear exactly what they muttered or they didn't actually say anything aloud, just wrote it down. Perhaps they're more sensitive than you fear?

I've always been weighed during the pre op assessment but I've also been weighed again whilst in theatre on the trolley. So if you are going to mention that you don't want to know your weight, you'd be best telling the pre op assessment nurse and the theatre staff/surgeon.

Not sure if it's just a surgery thing as OH attends hospital regularly for a long term/permanent issue and gets weighed, blood pressure and pulse taken everytime he goes to see the consultant. I suspect they see your weight as being an integral part of your general health.

I was just asked, not weighed, end of last year.

You aren’t the only one. Not known my weight or even owned a set of scales for 30 years. No longer even know my height other than I am short. Very liberating.

I was weighed at my pre-op appointment about 10 days before the surgery. An correct measurement is required in order to calculate the dose of GA drugs and others that may be needed as accurately as possible.

You can ask not to be told your weight and tell them why (if you feel able to explain that). Perhaps you could stand on the scales with your back to the display screen?

I understand not wanting to know your weight. I hate knowing mine, but I find out at times when I visit the diabetes clinic (I am type 2 diabetic, and overweight). I also have a DD who struggles with mental health issues and had an eating disorder throughout her teenage years. She is in her twenties now but I believe being weighed could still be triggering for her too.

Its very important. DH was weighed, but the anetheatist didn't check his body mass. DH is heavy, but big framed and muscly, not fat. He was given too much and felt awful for several days after.

It isn't weird for someone who has had a serious eating disorder to find being weighed distressing and triggering.

In fact, at the eating disorders clinic my DD attended in her teenage years (she is a diagnosed anorexic) she and we were told to keep her away from the bathroom scales.

They need to know so they give you the correct dose. Not enough and you could wake up during the op but paralysed and unable to blink your eyes or speak or scream, but still feel cutting etc. Too much and your organs can shut down and you die on the table. So yeah, it's really, really, really, really vital that they know. If you don't want to know, just tell them of your ED history and that you don't want them to say out loud what you weigh.

an anaesthetist is there the whole time to make sure it looks like the the customer is asleep and to respond to any changes in physiology

"Customer"? Do you mean patient? I'd have thought a "customer" for intravenous general anaesthetics would be someone like Michael Jackson.

Unfortunately that doesn’t work as an explanation. If the anaesthetist had assumed that his weight was due to fat rather than muscle mass he’d have received less anaesthetic. As BMI is dependent on weight and height it doesn’t differentiate between fat and muscle (which is one of the main arguments against its use).

I wasn't weighed.

I don't know if this will help but

My BMI is high. Very high. I had an operation recently and in pre op they weighed me. I was given a leaflet about GAs and high BMI and my heart sank - but I found it really reassuring because it wasn't condemning me for fat at that point, it was simply saying, in a non judgemental way, that the anaesthetist would work with me. I have very disordered eating, and the stress of the operation wasn't helping me.

It's possibly the only time that I felt the NHS wasn't hating me. That I still was a person underneath.

I hope you receive a similar reassurance and support.

All you need to say is "I have a history of ED. I don't want to see the weight on the display and please don't tell me."

Yes they have to weigh you to give the correct dosages of anaesthesia. I was weighed as I was going through to my labour room as a c section was very likely (and I did have one!).

This is an entirely overdramatic load of nonsense. It is better to be using an accurate weight, particularly when using total intravenous anaesthesia, but anaesthesia can be achieved safely without precise numbers because we’re there the whole time to respond to unexpected physiology. If volatile anaesthetic is being used weight matters not one jot. Your organs also don’t start ‘shutting down’ if you get a bit more than you need, particularly if you’re generally healthy. It isn’t always possible to get a precise weight and in those cases we do the best we can, and the overwhelming majority of the time things turn out fine.

There are many more things that affect the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of the drugs we use (eg. electrolytes, alcohol intake, underlying pathology, body composition rather than just weight).

Historically there’s probably been much more of a tendency to overdose with anaesthetic drugs rather than underdone and we haven’t been killing people in droves.

it isn’t all about the anaesthetic though - as alluded to earlier, there are other important bits of peri-op care for which an accurate weight can also make a difference.

Does everyone own a set of scales? I don’t. I have no idea what I weigh. I also used to have an ED. OP, share with them and they will handle it sensitively, you deserve the best care.

I can only remember being weighed before a GA once, the other two times I think they just asked me my weight.

OP I'd tell them your history so they understand how important it is for you not to be aware of what the measurement shows, so shouldn't be said out loud, visible to you or written on any papers that you see.

They asked me.

I’ve had a few operations recently. I was weighed on the day of surgery every time. I don’t own any scales at home. You don’t need to look and you can ask them not to tell you.