Download or print
Download HNELHD Getting Ready for Surgery Booklet
Current as of Tuesday, 09 July 2024.
Request accessible format of this publication.
Guide to getting ready for surgery in Hunter New England
After your surgery in a Hunter New England Hospital
After your surgery
The recovery room
When your surgery is complete, we will move you to a nearby recovery room for several hours.
You will be closely monitored as your anaesthetic begins to wear off and your body adjusts to the effects of surgery. Your hospital care team will also organise any pain medications you might need.
If you are staying in hospital, we will move you to a bed in a ward. Staff will let you and your family or carer know which ward you are in. If you are having day surgery, we will move you to a waiting room until you are ready to be discharged home.
While you are in the recovery room your family will not be able to visit you (unless you have very specific carer support needs). It is most likely that your family will not be contacted until you are moved to your ward.
You will stay in the recovery room until it is safe to transfer you to another area.
REACH
Raising concerns if you are feeling unwell while in hospital
If you or your family are worried that you are not doing well while in hospital, please let the nurse or doctor know that you are worried and why. You can ask for a clinical review to be arranged. This means that a doctor should review you (the patient) within 30 minutes of being contacted. If you are still worried or think things are getting worse you can make a REACH call using the REACH phone number displayed at the bedside. You will need to provide the ward and patient name.
What's on my legs?
When you have surgery and extended stays in hospital, this can put you at risk of developing blood clots. Before and after surgery, nurses might help you put on tight fitting stockings. These help to keep blood circulating while you are having surgery and reduce the risk of a blood clot forming in your legs.
These clots are called Deep Vein Thrombosis or DVT. Other DVT risk factors include:
- being overweight
- smoking
- taking oestrogen-based medicines like the oral contraceptive pill and hormone replacement therapy. Talk to your GP before surgery.
- being pregnant or having recently given birth
- older age
- heart disease
- a family history of blood clots.
If you have been given anti-blood clot stockings, wear them day and night while you are in hospital. You can take them off when you have a shower or bath. Some patients will not be provided with stockings as they can make lower leg problems worse. Ask your nurse or doctor if you should be wearing stockings.
Pain control
Our aim after surgery is to make you as comfortable as possible and help you breathe, move and function normally again. It is normal to feel uncomfortable as your body recovers from surgery. Doctors and nurses will monitor your pain level regularly after your surgery and may ask you to score your pain between 0 (no pain) and 10 (extreme pain).
Treating your pain
It is important to tell your nurse if you are in pain before the pain becomes really bad. Pain relief (analgesia) is given to reduce the pain you feel after surgery. Sometimes pain medication can make you very sleepy. This is a normal response.
Pain control comes in many forms. You may be given tablets, an injection or you may control your pain with a button that gives you pain relief when you need it. This button is called patient-controlled analgesia or PCA. Your anaesthetist will discuss which pain relief is best for you to be comfortable.
Pain medication
Regular paracetamol is often the best treatment for mild to moderate pain. Some types of pain also respond well to anti-inflammatory medication. Strong pain medications (opioids) might be needed for sudden or more severe pain. Morphine and oxycodone are two types of strong pain relief that are used for a limited time after surgery.
These medications may have side effects which may affect how they are used and how often you take them. Feeling drowsy is common. Sometimes opioid medication can make you feel sick or vomit. This does not mean you are allergic to that medication. Let staff know if this happens so we can help. Most people will need some pain relief after surgery. Pain relief works best when taken regularly and before the pain gets really bad. Some people may get constipated after taking opioid medications. Ask your doctor or nurse what you should do to prevent this.