The Importance Of Pre-Op Hydration

I know a lot of people are nervous or busy the day before surgery, and it becomes easy to skip out on hydration - or even forget. But take this as a reminder about how important it is to be adequately hydrated when you go in. For multiple reasons, but this will be, chronologically, the first.

My surgeon required a pre-op laxative. Usually it works in about an hour. For me, it took about 13 hours. The result was that I had major diarrhea AFTER my midnight cutoff for anything by mouth, so I was unable to replace the fluids I was losing. It took 6 people (after 3 fails, it's someone else's turn), 17 attempts, and over an hour to get an IV line in. I wish DH had taken a pic of me laying there with IV needles sticking out everywhere, it would have looked so much more dramatic than it actually was. Not all IV fails are pictured, just the ones that show up in bad lighting.

(I REALLY wish I had a picture of the look on my surgeon's face when I told him my laxative (which takes several hours to run its course) had just kicked in 3 hours ago, so sorry if I pooped on the table but it was his fault for making me take it).

DRINK YOUR WATER!