Before your surgery
The information in this section is for general orientation and does not replace personal medical assessment, instructions or follow-up. Always follow your surgeon's recommendations.
Almost everything that goes well in surgery was decided before the operating room. This guide explains what you will be asked for in the preceding weeks, why it is asked, and what you can start sorting out today.
Your pre-operative instructions
After your consultation you receive your own instructions in writing: what to stop, what to continue, which tests to have and how far in advance. That document is the one that counts. This guide is here so you understand what each point is about and arrive with your questions already thought through.
If anything on that sheet is unclear, do not interpret it: ask. Stopping a medicine on your own can be as much of a problem as not stopping it.
- Keep the instruction sheet somewhere you can find quickly, not at the bottom of a drawer.
- If your medication changes between the consultation and surgery, say so even if it seems minor.
- Bring the sheet with you on the day.
Medical tests
A pre-operative work-up is requested before surgery. It is not paperwork: it is what confirms you can go through anaesthesia safely, and it is also what sometimes finds something worth treating first.
Which tests you are asked for depends on your age, your history and the procedure. You are given the exact list in consultation, together with how long each result stays valid. If you already have recent tests, bring them: they often count and save you repeating them.
- Results expire. Having them too early means repeating them.
- An abnormal result does not mean you cannot have surgery. It means it needs looking at.
- Bring reports from previous surgery, if you have had any.
Physical preparation and habits
Tobacco is the modifiable factor that weighs the most. Nicotine narrows the vessels that carry blood to operated skin, and healing and a good share of the complications depend on that. Smoking includes vaping, heated tobacco, and nicotine patches and gum: the problem is the nicotine, not the smoke.
Alcohol, a stable weight and proper rest count too. If you are in the middle of losing weight, say so: for some procedures it is better to wait until your weight settles.
- If you smoke, ask in consultation how far in advance to stop and for how long afterwards.
- Do not start a strict diet or a new training programme without mentioning it.
- Report any active infection, even a cold or a bad tooth.
Medication and supplements
Bring the full list of everything you take to your consultation: prescribed and not. That includes contraceptives, antidepressants, blood thinners, thyroid treatment, weight-loss injectables, and also what does not feel like medicine: vitamins, herbal teas, health-shop supplements and gym products.
Several of them affect bleeding or anaesthesia, and some of the best known are sold over the counter. What gets stopped, when, and what carries on is decided case by case, never from what you read online.
- Make the list by photographing the boxes. It beats memory.
- Include what you only take "sometimes".
- Do not stop anything on your own, especially heart, blood pressure or clotting medication.
Getting your home ready
The first days at home are far easier if they were sorted out beforehand. The idea is not having to bend, reach up or carry anything on the days you specifically should not.
Leave what you will use within reach, do the shopping, and arrange who will be with you. Spending the first nights alone is not a good idea, and it is worth agreeing in advance rather than the night before.
- Bring what you use daily down to hand height: clothes, glasses, chargers.
- Have somewhere ready to sleep propped up, if that is what you are told.
- Agree with someone on the ride home and company for the first days.
- If you have small children or jumping pets, arrange who looks after them.
Eating in the weeks beforehand
There is no magic pre-operative diet. What does help is arriving well nourished and well hydrated, eating normally and enough, because healing uses up resources.
Fasting on the day of surgery is a different matter and has strict rules. It is covered in the guide to the day of your surgery.
- Do not arrive at surgery having just finished a restrictive diet.
- If you eat vegetarian, vegan or with restrictions, mention it in consultation.
What applies to your case is given to you in writing by Dr. García, with your quotation and your consent form. If anything here does not match your sheet, your sheet is the one that counts.