Question on Pre-op tests

[Jamie]

Kimberly, you would never want to mail drugs to Mexico. Actually it's a bad plan to mail anything there as packages routinely get opened and items mysteriously disappear. Not to mention their postal system is very unreliable in terms of time. You might be able to use something like FedEx in the larger cities, but I'm not sure if it's even safe for something like meds. Mexico is VERY serious about their drug problems.

 

[Texas]

Hi just chiming in i had pre op at least 2 weeks before surg that was my cu off time.............good luck to ya!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dcdowden]

Just thought I would add that as part of my Pre-Op check up with my Primary Care Doc, they gave me a tetanus/diphtheria booster shot to make sure I was current. I think you are supposed to have one of those every 10 years or so. The rest of my experience was similar to those already described: BP, Temp, Blood work (Comp Metabolic Panel and hemoglobin or CBC), Urinalysis, and EKG all at my primary care Doc; pre-op xrays at the Ortho Surgeon; and Blood type and screen at the hospital. I did these all within 2 weeks of surgery. I would advise getting cleared by your primary care Doc early enough to allow time for some followup tests if they have any concerns about any of the results.
Good Luck,
Doug

 

[Josephine]

Interesting comment about the tetanus. I feel a mini-lecture coming on!

There was a time that people were advised to have boosters every ten years or so but then the microbiologists discovered that care workers who were seemingly non-responders after Hep B immunisation actually got a good register if they had an exposure to body fluids such as in needle stick injuries. At the time, any non-responder care-worker suffering a NS injury would be given a very painful, risky and expensive injection of live vaccine to protect them.

Looking into this further, they found that supposed non-responders actually did have immunity but it would only become recordable after exposure. So they began looking into other vaccines and found it was the same pretty much across the board. And this included tetanus. So the policy now (in the UK, don't know about elsewhere) is that once you've had the basic course you only need to have a booster if you've had an exposure. The regular boosters are no longer given.

Plus which, they also found that people often forgot to get their ten year boosters anyway yet still appeared to be covered in the event of any accident. And research confirmed the findings recording in the HepB scenario.

Sorry, can't quote any sources, this is from my own experience in Occupational Health in 94-96.

 

[dcdowden]

Jo,
At least I didn't have to pay anything extra for the tetanus shot. I doubt that I had had one in the past 30 years, so I definitely was in the category of forgot about it.
Thanks for the insight.
Doug