I am leaving for surgery in Mexico on Thursday and just wondering exactly which pre-op tests they do? Without any testing done prior to arrival, what happens if they find an issue? Today I walked home (it's a longish walk, a couple of miles probably) and it's a really hot day. By the time I got home, I was feeling twinges in my chest if I took a real deep breath, and I have noticed twinges here and there over the last few months that feel like my heart. While I am obviously overweight, I don't have any co-morbidities and I've never had an issue like that before. It worries me...if I get to Mexico and something is weird on my EKG, what happens???

Who is your surgeon? I had Dr. Aceves and he did a urinalysis, blood tests, an EKG, and a chest X-ray. If he had found something that made surgery unsafe for him to perform, I expect he would have sent me home to my PCP to see if it could be corrected, but I am only guessing; everything was fine. Why don't you ask them in order to put your mind at ease?

When I went I had an EKG, blood work, urine work and an xray. They want to make sure that you are fit enough to have surgery so they are probably looking for (in the xray) any enlargement of the heart or other organs, (in blood work) anemia, blood counts, anything severely out of range, EKG, strong heart, no indication of previous heart attack or damage and urine test, probably test for things like Protein, infection, that sort of thing.It wasn't as big a concern for me since I do have many comorbidities and have been to several specialists here in the US prior so I pretty much knew what they would find. It would be a good idea to get testing done prior if you can, but since i know you are leaving quite soon, and I don't know if you have any medical insurance, this might not be an option. If they found that something was very abnormal that would put you at too great a risk for surgery, I feel certain they would not do the surgery. In which case you'd be out probably your deposit and your trip there, etc. It would be better to have this happen though than to take a big risk if you have any serious issues. That being said, I'm 42, diabetic, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, fatty liver, on 13 different meds and I was still 'cleared'. As an obese person, your risks of surgery are higher than those of a normal weight person, for the most part. The twinges you describe could be normal considering the heat and your size and physical condition. If I were you, I'd speak to the doctor as soon as I arrived and tell him my concerns, ask that the EKG and other tests be run and then that they come and talk to you about all the results before they prep you for surgery. I think you will be fine.

I am leaving for surgery in Mexico on Thursday and just wondering exactly which pre-op tests they do? Without any testing done prior to arrival, what happens if they find an issue? Today I walked home (it's a longish walk, a couple of miles probably) and it's a really hot day. By the time I got home, I was feeling twinges in my chest if I took a real deep breath, and I have noticed twinges here and there over the last few months that feel like my heart. While I am obviously overweight, I don't have any co-morbidities and I've never had an issue like that before. It worries me...if I get to Mexico and something is weird on my EKG, what happens???

Thanks for the input guys...I had an EKG and chest x-ray back in October and there was nothing wrong then, nor do I have any history of issues. I'm probably just being a worrywart/paranoid something will go wrong at the last second...