Full-Body Shave for Women?

[Amanda]

Hi,

I'm scheduled to have valve surgery in the next month and have heard there is a full-body shave involved, at least for the guys. I understand shaving the guys but not sure it's necessary for women, especially if there isn't anything in the groin area they'll be needing to involve. OK, so there it is, I'm wondering if I should do a pre-emptive shave (below the belt) because it's just one less humiliation for the day of surgery

Amanda

 

[Bina]

Amanda, hello and welcome.
Many hospitals and surgeons have different pre op routines. I wouldn't worry about it or prepare for it cuz usually when it gets down to the nitty gritty details you are already knocked out and all memory of the nasty stuff will be gone forever anyway.
Cutting your hair shorter may be easier to care for it afterwards......Oh, I mean your hair on your head. Yeah, that's it.

 

[Luana]

I agree with Bina. Also, the only thing you'll have to go through while you're still awake is one IV being started. When you're taken into surgery, they'll do everything else. It's probably an hour or more from when you're taken in until your surgery actually starts.

 

[Amanda]

Bina,
Thanks for the input. I'm still laughing.

In preparing for surgery, I'm learning things about myself that I'm not too sure I'm all that proud of. The part I am proud of is that I've quit shaking and crying and am now doing work to prep myself mentally and physically for the operation. Here are the things I'm not too proud of but I find amusing:

1. Mani/Pedi: Will go with a natural-looking gel for the hands. For the feet, a spring color with heart designs on big toes. Doing this day before surgery.
2. Hair: Getting haircut and highlights so roots won't be a problem during recovery. Hair dresser has already agreed to come up to the house, if necessary. Ditto for my mani/pedi lady
3. Face: Botox done in the last week. I can already hear the nurses discussing: she says she's in severe pain but her face looks so serene!!
4. Clothing: Purchased cute short-sleeved button down jammie top and pink bottoms with hearts.

A couple of things are at work here. First of all, I'm from L.A. so 'nuf said. Second, I've been in the CICU 2 or 3 times before and never had any notice so I had no personal items with me. For one, it's not fun having to walk the halls in the hospital gown flashing the world. It's not even nice to be in a hospital gown for a week. It's depressing. Now I'll have a really cute pair of jammie bottoms to wear. Yaaaay. Also, the thought of having my own shampoo and cream rinse is so great; the hospital supplied toiletries weren't 5 star. And probably the biggest reason for all this silly prep is that it's keeping my mind busy and off the impending surgery!!

Amanda

 

[njean]

For my last surgery, while I was in the holding area just prior to the surgery the nurse came in to shave both sides of my groin area. That was because they did an angiogram just before the surgery & the catheter was inserted on the right side of the groin area. The left side was also prepared, in case they have to insert a catheter through there during the surgery I'm assuming, not sure??

Don't worry about this however......the nurses are very discreet about it & it's nothing they haven't done before! Chances are like Bina said, that they will do this when you are already under & you'll never know the better!

Best of luck to you!

 

[njean]

Amanda, hello and welcome.
Many hospitals and surgeons have different pre op routines. I wouldn't worry about it or prepare for it cuz usually when it gets down to the nitty gritty details you are already knocked out and all memory of the nasty stuff will be gone forever anyway.
Cutting your hair shorter may be easier to care for it afterwards......Oh, I mean your hair on your head. Yeah, that's it.

Silly goose.....LOL!

 

[njean]

Bina,
Thanks for the input. I'm still laughing.

In preparing for surgery, I'm learning things about myself that I'm not too sure I'm all that proud of. The part I am proud of is that I've quit shaking and crying and am now doing work to prep myself mentally and physically for the operation. Here are the things I'm not too proud of but I find amusing:

1. Mani/Pedi: Will go with a natural-looking gel for the hands. For the feet, a spring color with heart designs on big toes. Doing this day before surgery.
2. Hair: Getting haircut and highlights so roots won't be a problem during recovery. Hair dresser has already agreed to come up to the house, if necessary. Ditto for my mani/pedi lady
3. Face: Botox done in the last week. I can already hear the nurses discussing: she says she's in severe pain but her face looks so serene!!
4. Clothing: Purchased cute short-sleeved button down jammie top and pink bottoms with hearts.

A couple of things are at work here. First of all, I'm from L.A. so 'nuf said. Second, I've been in the CICU 2 or 3 times before and never had any notice so I had no personal items with me. For one, it's not fun having to walk the halls in the hospital gown flashing the world. It's not even nice to be in a hospital gown for a week. It's depressing. Now I'll have a really cute pair of jammie bottoms to wear. Yaaaay. Also, the thought of having my own shampoo and cream rinse is so great; the hospital supplied toiletries weren't 5 star. And probably the biggest reason for all this silly prep is that it's keeping my mind busy and off the impending surgery!!

Amanda

Just for your info, if you have nail colour, they may ask you to remove it, at least they did me......??

Did they do this to any of you gals out there????

You may want to find out about this first before you spend the money having a mani/pedi.

 

[Guest]

Just a heads up....a couple of weeks post-surgery I decided to shave my legs....managed a couple of nicks and the bleeding went on and on......I was not on coumadin, but I was on plavix so clotting was slow. No one warned me about the possible effect.

Best wishes.

Pat

 

[Lynlw]

Bina,
Thanks for the input. I'm still laughing.

In preparing for surgery, I'm learning things about myself that I'm not too sure I'm all that proud of. The part I am proud of is that I've quit shaking and crying and am now doing work to prep myself mentally and physically for the operation. Here are the things I'm not too proud of but I find amusing:

1. Mani/Pedi: Will go with a natural-looking gel for the hands. For the feet, a spring color with heart designs on big toes. Doing this day before surgery.
2. Hair: Getting haircut and highlights so roots won't be a problem during recovery. Hair dresser has already agreed to come up to the house, if necessary. Ditto for my mani/pedi lady
3. Face: Botox done in the last week. I can already hear the nurses discussing: she says she's in severe pain but her face looks so serene!!
4. Clothing: Purchased cute short-sleeved button down jammie top and pink bottoms with hearts.

A couple of things are at work here. First of all, I'm from L.A. so 'nuf said. Second, I've been in the CICU 2 or 3 times before and never had any notice so I had no personal items with me. For one, it's not fun having to walk the halls in the hospital gown flashing the world. It's not even nice to be in a hospital gown for a week. It's depressing. Now I'll have a really cute pair of jammie bottoms to wear. Yaaaay. Also, the thought of having my own shampoo and cream rinse is so great; the hospital supplied toiletries weren't 5 star. And probably the biggest reason for all this silly prep is that it's keeping my mind busy and off the impending surgery!!

Amanda

Sounds like you are making good plans. A couple things tho. You might want to ask befoe you get the cute spring time w/ heart pedi. They usually, (at least many places, like everything else all hospitals/surgeons have their own ways of doing things) make you take all the nail polish off so they can see the colors under your nails (they can be blueish with lower oxygen).
Justin always feels much better in his own clothes to and as soon as possible got out of the gown. But you might want to take a little more than you think, because after surgery it is pretty common to sweat alot, especially when you are sleeping. Justin usually wears lounge type bottom or pull on gym shorts and button tops.

Speaking of different centers doing different things, I would ask your surgeon or nurse whoever you feel most comfortable asking, how much/where they shave. Some places shave from the neck down and others just the chest and possibly either side of the groin as Norma Jean mentioned. It would stink if you shaved everything then found out they don't shave their patients that much.

ps you made me laugh a few times, especially picturing the nurses discussing your serene face.

 

[ARGreenMN]

Probably jumping in where I don't belong since I don't know anything about manis or pedis (I'm a guy). But I remember having the same question - should I do some more-than-normal man-scaping before surgery. Like you, I was keeping busy with things (projects around the house) leading up to surgery to keep my mind off things (which worked very well by the way). And I ended up not leaving enough time to shave before I left. Plus, I figured, what the heck, maybe it'll be fun to have the nurses do it. Turns out, at least at my hospital, they didn't shave "down there" at all. Shaved my chest and belly, and top of my thighs (not sure why they did that...) but nothing else. So, like someone else said, you might wanna check w/ them before doing "too much". I laugh now because one of the other things I had on my todo list (from reading this forum) was to trim my toenails right before surgery (which I did). Turns out I could have easily trimmed them again a few days after surgery. Maybe I'm not normal, but within a few days after surgery (I wanna say by day 3, if not day 2), I could reach everything on my body I could before surgery, which surprised me thinking I'd have a lot less mobility. But hey, if it keeps your mind off things to do all the prep - I say go for it! Anything to keep your mind pre-occupied going in is good!

 

[Ross]

Where do I sign up to be the shaver?

 

[Luckyguy17]

Amanda,

my recent experience and instructions from hospital ( you will likely have a pre op clinic, of 3-4 hours to meet the operating room specialists, get instructions and a battery of xray, EKG, bloodtests tests etc. In my case this clinic was about 6 days before the operation.

Our hospital had written instructions about No shaving of any body parts within 48 hours of admittance (they are worried about , 48 hour stubble being missed in their shaving and possible infection).
They shave what they want to just preceding surgery
Mine was uniquely chest for incision, about 6 x 15 inches and upper leg, in fold not sure if that was for an IV, drain, camera or an incase?

 

[Cooker]

Where do I sign up to be the shaver?

Sorry ... I took the job last week ... Chimps know hair you know:biggrin2:

 

[kfay]

It's so funny how when we are about to have major heart surgery, we are worried about that whole shaving thing! I think we all do it. They didn't do a "full" body shave on me, just specifically the groin area. I had had a cath the day before so had some removed then, so the nurse didn't take anymore off. I'd just leave it to them...they literally do it all day long. I had a pedi before mine and they left it alone, but if you do your nails as well, you might find that they take it off.

 

[Cooker]

Seriously, I agree with kfay ... I was about to have my chest split open and I too was not excited about the idea of "the shave" ... they started at the neck and went to the ankles ... I had had my cath and knew there was no blockage and no bypass was happening and I told the guy ... he must have been deaf ... it was all good though because by then I had a major buzz:cool2:

 

[Mileena46]

Had to remove polish on both hands and feet, and had a body shave the night before so I wasn't knocked out. It was bad. I don't want to be the Nay sayer in the bunch, but thought you might want to be prepared for this should you be awake. The only good thing about it was the nurse let me go to the bathroom with the little shaver and do "parts" of it myself. She then just checked me out. I would be lying to you if I told you this wasn't embarassing because it was.

Mileena

 

[OldManEmu]

Trim

Trim

As a bloke I can only provide advice from such experience.
Amanda unless you have chest and abdo hair :eek2: you shouldn't have a problem on the day.
If you need a cath, a trim may be required. Think landing strip.

 

[Superbob]

Amanda, I guess you do your best to maintain your modesty, and the hospital staff tries to help, but given the circumstances you sometimes just have to let go and consider that you are like a newborn in caring hands. I don't have any recollection of shaving sections of the body being a problem, but I think back to a nurse helping me with my first bath -- wasn't embarrassed at the time, was grateful to have help with showering without falling down. And when I had my cath two young female nurses stationed south of the border kept "reassuring" me that they weren't looking. Yeah, sure honey. :rolleyes2: We would have a bigger problem if there was nothing there for you to see (or not see). :tongue2: And then there's the walking laps in that little hospital gown that's so hard to keep closed in the tail flap section.

Guess I'm saying, just try to relax and bring your sense of humor. You'll have war stories to tell when you get back home. All best to you.

 

[njean]

Amanda, I guess you do your best to maintain your modesty, and the hospital staff tries to help, but given the circumstances you sometimes just have to let go and consider that you are like a newborn in caring hands. I don't have any recollection of shaving sections of the body being a problem, but I think back to a nurse helping me with my first bath -- wasn't embarrassed at the time, was grateful to have help with showering without falling down. And when I had my cath two young female nurses stationed south of the border kept "reassuring" me that they weren't looking. Yeah, sure honey. :rolleyes2: We would have a bigger problem if there was nothing there for you to see (or not see). :tongue2: And then there's the walking laps in that little hospital gown that's so hard to keep closed in the tail flap section.

Guess I'm saying, just try to relax and bring your sense of humor. You'll have war stories to tell when you get back home. All best to you.

I'm smiling as I read this SB......back when I had my 2nd surgery in 75', after I was back in my room, there was a gentleman(?) that would insist on making sure I would get a good view of his backside everytime he went by on his walks! And of course, I didn't want to look but you know human nature.......you're gonna look!!! I think one of the other female patients in the ward complained about it & because he stopped doing it!!!!

 

[Jkm7]

My first surgery was emergent and I came to Mass General with colored nails and toes. The nurses removed all polish before surgery.
My second surgery was scheduled and I had mani/pedi with clear polish and they let that stay.