Support on day of surgery

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I’m the one who is the patient and I am due to get a hysterectomy on Monday. My husband and daughter basically want to know what to do on the day of the surgery. They have suggested staying in the hospital cafeteria and wait until the surgery is over but I don’t know what time they plan to take me down so it could be a very long wait.
Can anyone tell me what you did when your loved one had to have surgery? Did you just drop them at the hospital or stay with them until they were taken for surgery?

Many thanks

  • Hi  

    I’m also the patient, and I had 3 surgeries in 3 years of varying lengths. My partner was able to wait with me each time in the theatre assessment unit until I was taken to theatre. We live quite a distance from the hospital so they stayed until I was out of theatre and came to see me briefly in the high dependency unit or the ward. 

    It’s hard to predict when you will be taken, and hard to predict when you will be out of recovery but it was good to be able to have my partner waiting with me to go down. Things can be delayed if the patient before you takes longer than anticipated but I would hope you’d be allowed to have someone wait with you.

    Sarah xx


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  • That’s good to know. I thought they’d be told to go home it’s been over 30 years since I was last in hospital.

  • I had my most recent surgery last year, and my others in 2020 and things were the same for me on each occasion. You could try calling the department tomorrow to check so you will know for sure what your particular hospital’s policies are.

    I’ve had to be be there at 7am each time, and been taken on the morning list, but still had to wait for quite a time-the shortest wait I had before going to the actual theatre was 2 hours, the others were longer.

    I hope everything goes well for you on Monday and you’re soon at home recovering!

    Sarah xx


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