Hospital the Night Before and Blood?

[Elgato]

Is it typical to be admitted the night before surgery?

Is there any need for or is even feasible to donate some of your own blood for the surgery?

Thanks

 

[Heart Of The Sunrise]

I asked the same question about blood donation. I was told “we take it all off at the top.”
Later I would learn they do DHCA with RCP. They chilled my body down to 58 degrees. Drained all of the blood out of my body. Put my brain on the heart-lung machine then,fix my heart with no blood pressure. Deep Hypothermic Cardiac Arrest with Retro-grade Cerebral Perfusion. Pretty amazing! I arrived at the hospital at 4:30 am...in the OR around 8 am. First surgery of the day. 9 hours in the OR.

 

[Mentu]

You Can Bank Blood

You Can Bank Blood

Hi, unless there is some complicating factor you should not expect to be admitted to the hospital the night before surgery. I was the first surgery of the day and was asked to be at 05:30 am. I puffed, out of breath, all the way from the parking lot thinking "This may be the last time I'll breath like this."

I asked my surgeon about banking blood. His response was that few people need blood today. One of the incredible things about OHS today is that there is very little blood loss. Because it made me feel better, I went to the Red Cross where there is a program for banking blood before surgery and I saved 1 unit of blood. As it turned out, my blood loss during surgery was less than 6 oz - considerably less that the one unit I had banked. I didn't need my 1 unit and signed it over to be used for someone else. Still, it was something I could do and it made me feel better having done so...and the blood did not go to waste.

Larry

 

[Paleowoman]

In the UK you are admitted the day before surgery, usually in the afternoon. Even if your surgery is scheduled for the afternoon - mine was - you are admitted in the afternoon of the day before ! But I see you are from the US and it seems quite different there !

 

[bw00]

Here in the Netherlands you get admitted a day before surgery as well. They do the usual check-ups on that day. My surgeon also said that the chances of needing blood were quite small!

 

[clay_from_nj]

I went in the morning of. The hospital has a kind of "prep" room with several beds, kind of like an Emergency ward, and being that I was the first customer of the day, I was the only one there. It was kind of like having my own private hospital.

 

[tom in MO]

My hospital you only go in the day before if you are from out of town and they want to do tests.

 

[Ron Danahy]

I'm going in at noon for surgery scheduled at 7 am I will be traveling about 150 miles to the hospital though

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk

 

[pnarciso]

I got in the night before too, and was told the same about blood (no need). So, here in Brazil, seems to be the same

 

[river-wear]

Interesting comments about banking blood. Both my surgeon and the nurse at the hospital recommended I bank two pints just in case. The surgeon said there's about a 20% chance of needing it, but it's more likely with smaller people (women too). They have to dilute your blood a certain amount to make up the volume that has to go out to the heart/lung machine and back. The nurse also mentioned that if your hematocrit is borderline, they'll give you blood if it's yours. They are more conservative if you haven't banked any.

 

[ChicagoMammy]

I'm in the US. For my mitral valve replacement seven years ago, I gave blood twice in the four weeks before surgery. This time (aortic and mitral) I asked about it and he said it would only make my symptoms worse. Same doctor, same hospital. I'm not sure if it's because of valve type, change in policy, or how much more symptomatic I was this time.

Both times I was asked to be in the hospital 90 minutes before the start of surgery. Surgery started at 7am both times.

 

[Gail in Ca]

I was admitted the day before my 3rd surgery. I had a private room that night, had to take the scrubby shower with special soap that night and at 5am. Not sure if all OHS patients come in the day before at Stanford, but Dr. Miller wanted me there a day early.
Before my 1st surgery in '89, I had directed donor from my sisters, Mom and couple of friends. They did use some then. In '00, I went in as emergency, so didn't have that option, but my cardiologist told me that often stranger blood is better! So, for my 3rd, I didn't bother to get blood for myself put aside by my family or friends. I did need FFP after both 2nd and 3rd surgeries. I also got tested for aids about a year after my 3rd one, just to feel better about it. It was negative, thankfully.

 

[dwhist]

I went in at 5:30 am the morning of surgery and was in OR about 6:30 am.
Did not bank blood, but later that evening I noticed a bag of blood had been put on pole with the iv's and asked about it. Nurse said they take all the blood they collect during surgery and process it and give it back to me. I think the heart lung machine holds some when they disconnect. I saw somewhere that a company now has a system to return the remaining heart lung machines blood back to patient before leaving the OR.

 

[Bryan B]

I didn't bank blood for either of my surgeries and don't recall needing blood either time.

For my first surgery I went in early on the morning of the surgery. I had a cath done a couple of weeks prior and then pre-op testing the day before surgery.

For my second surgery I went in the morning before for pre-op testing, cath, admitted, and had the surgery the next morning. I MUCH preferred this to having 3 separate events to panic over. :eek2::smile2:

 

[Bryan B]

Sorry, accidental double post.