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Surgery - if given the choice - Friday or Monday

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Posted 4/13/2011 12:36 PM (GMT 0)

If your doctor's office gave you a choice to have your surgery (small bowel resection) on a Friday or a Monday, which would you choose?  What are the pros and cons of either option? 

For me, Friday is appealing because if I were to return to work on a future Monday, it would add a couple of weekend days to the recovery timeframe. 

However, Monday is appealing because the doctor doing the surgery would be in the hospital every day that week during my recovery - whereas on a Friday I would be seeing a different doctor on Saturday and Sunday. 

If I go on a Friday, it may be easier for out of town family to visit in the hospital - however, on a Monday I would likely be heading home the following weekend, and they could better visit/assist at my first weekend home. 

Posted 4/13/2011 4:12 PM (GMT 0)
Personally, I would go for the Monday surgery date, since your Dr. will be around during the week to tend to your care. I've been admitted multiple times on Fridays and it truly stinks. You sit around all weekend long waiting for Monday to roll around when your Doctors will be making rounds.

Good luck!!!
Posted 4/13/2011 7:21 PM (GMT 0)
I'd go for Monday also. It's a pain to not have a doctor who knows you see you in the days following surgery. It's also far more complicated should you need to change meds or anything and it be on a weekend when doctors are harder to get a hold of.
Posted 4/13/2011 7:31 PM (GMT 0)
My surgeon sees his patients on the weekend, too, so yours might as well. You could always ask and see; that would definitely make a big difference for me! I was so thankful to see mine every single day and I never saw another doctor while I was there.

Mine was on a Wed and I went home the following Thursday.
Posted 4/13/2011 8:24 PM (GMT 0)
I just had resection surgery and it was on a Friday. I didn't have a choice of days. It was Friday or wait a month. That being said. My doctor was in all weekend. I didn't mind it being on the weekend because I felt lousy and basically slept all the time. Usually I hate being in the hospital on the weekend because there is nothing on TV on the weekends, but since I was knocked out on painkillers it was fine. I went home the following Wednesday. Which was good because if there were any problems I wasn't at home with no doctors offices open and only the ER as an option. My husband did work from home for a couple of days, but I probably would have been fine by myself as long as I didn't try to shower or do anything crazy like that.
Posted 4/13/2011 8:42 PM (GMT 0)
I would pick Monday.

I was reading on MSN that docs where fresher on Mondays then Fridays :P
Plus if you needed something extra it would be easier during the week then the weekend.
Posted 4/15/2011 6:37 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you for all the input. I did go with Monday. The surgeon's admin said that he usually "stopped by" each morning on sat/Sun to see how his patients were doing, but that I would be managed by another physician.

I was just trying to figure out if there were any other pros to doing it on a Friday, but I think I'd rather have the safety of MY doc being there the first few days after surgery.
Posted 4/16/2011 8:02 AM (GMT 0)
I've been thinking about this same thing...
my surgeon's secretary gave me a choice of a few days and I picked a Wednesday next month..
he's very busy and I was lucky to get scheduled so soon but he told me that I could wait 6 weeks but not 6 months .. that I had a time bomb in me so maybe he gave me preferential treatment.. not sure

my logic with this was that he said that I would need to be in the hospital 3 to 4 days.. which I thought was very optimistic as I was having my first resection and they would be taking out my cecum, cecal valve and at least 8 inches of terminal ileum.
My thinking was that I would get to stay over the weekend for some extra time and observation and then on Monday be discharged if everything was ok.. and that would be 5 days.. and then I would feel safer to go home

My last 2 hospitalizations they released me way too early.. i didn't have surgery but I was in lousy shape and I think I would have continued to heal faster with having more IV meds than pills at home. Also ended up getting blocked again at home as they hadn't done a SB series on me and didn't know I had a large stricture yet... you would think that this should and could have been done while i was still on clear liquids.. but instead they discharged me after my IBS DX and told me I could eat whatever my body could tolerate.. geesss how would I know? ah the pain... I remember it well...
NY Veggie
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