I'm set to have surgery in two days on January 10th (this Saturday!) and I've started getting super sick this week! Chest congestion, cough, and I've completely lost my voice. Do you think I'll be able to continue on with the surgery? Is it a bad idea to go into surgery with a chest cold? I'm super nervous. I don't want to postpone my surgery, but I also don't want this to affect my recovery. Any thoughts??

The general rule is no surgery if you are sick. Call the surgeon, go see your doc.

Yep. As a nurse I can tell you that patients who lie about having a cold and still proceed with surgery have a rough time. Chest congestion combined with anesthesia puts you at a higher risk for developing pneumonia or atelactasis. Coughing violently after abdominal surgery will suck and can potentially cause other problems.

I hope you feel better soon and I'm sorry you got sick. =(

I went in sick as a dog. I did tell my surgeon first and the NP told me what cold meds I could and could not take. I had one of the worst colds I have ever had and coughing post op hurt like a bitch. I lived.

My thought: They are going to be putting a tube down your throat and if you are already having congestion they may not perform the surgery.

I agree with most...........contact your surgeon TODAY

My surgery was scheduled for Sep 29 & I also caught a very bad cold. Congestion, running nose, coughing. My surgeon had me check in at the hospital, but she, the OR nurses, the anesthesiologists etc etc kept checking on me. They gave me a breathing treatment and then cancelled my surgery just before I was scheduled to go in.

I am so glad they did. I wound up very sick for several weeks and treated by my PC doc. I was devastated but still am glad I got well first.

For the best possible outcome, I think you need to be healthy and feeling well going in.

I just had surgery 12/22.

Good luck to you! And feel better soon

If you get sick you must call them to postpone. They will not do surgery on a sick person. I work in the OR and cancellations happen all the time.

Yep.

I was a little sick with a cold, and funny thing is after surgery it was pretty much gone...

Thanks for all of your responses, everyone. I went to see my primary care doctor today and he said that although my voice is gone, it seems like this cold sounds worse than it is. He said he doesn't hear any congestion in my chest and doesn't see nasal congestion, so he said it should be fine for tomorrow. He was more worried that my pre-admissions blood tests showed that I have low potassium! So, he prescribed some potassium to boost my levels before surgery tomorrow, and recommended rest and Mucinex. I'm already feeling better this evening, and my cough seems to have died down. Fingers crossed that everything goes well tomorrow morning!!!

Yay! Good luck tomorrow!

Good luck & well wishes to you tomorrow @@alovelynewme .

Sorry for not replying sooner! I just wanted to update y'all in case anyone else has a similar issue in the future. I had my pre-admissions appointment and my appointment for medical clearance the day before my surgery and both doctors said that it would be fine to do surgery even though I was sick. My primary care doctor said that I didn't have much congestion and that I sounded worse than I really was, so it would be fine. I had my surgery on the 10th of January and guess what? Despite all my worrying, it was fine! Surgery went great, I'm recovering very nicely, and I'm no longer sick. Thank goodness!