Information for Surgery Patients

Once you and Dr. Irby have made the decision that surgery is the right option for you, you will most likely have many questions about what to expect. The following information has been compiled to help alleviate some of you and your family’s fears.

Prior to surgery, you will need to be medically cleared by having a History and Physical (H&P). This will be done either by your primary care physician (PCP) or by Lindsey, Dr. Irby’s PA. Dr. Irby will decide this and let you know during your visit. If your PCP will be clearing you, please take this form with you to that visit. A copy of this form will also be given to you during your visit. If Lindsey will be clearing you, you will be given an appointment to come back and see her for your H&P. Prior to this visit, you may fill out this form and bring it with you or you can fill it out in the waiting room.

Outpatient Surgery Entrance

Once you have been medically cleared, you will be scheduled for Pre-Admission Testing (PAT) at the hospital. This can consist of blood work, urine collection, x-rays, and/or an EKG depending on your age and past medical history. At this visit, a nurse will also go over many of the same questions that you have already answered for Lindsey or your PCP during your H&P. The hospital will call you to discuss appointment availabilities. Their office is located at the rear of the hospital. You should come in the

Pre-Admission Testing Entrance

“outpatient surgery” door and proceed to the first door on your left (pictured to the left) after the vending machines. You will not be able to proceed with surgery without having the necessary tests completed ahead of time. Please be sure to follow all instructions given to you during this appointment. Patients who will be undergoing a lumbar fusion with or without fixation are also asked to attend one or our

Spine Camp

“spine camp’s” which will walk you and your personal “coach” through what to expect during your stay in the hospital. Because these patients will also be required to wear a brace for 3 months following surgery, you will also be given instructions on how to adjust your normal daily activities so as not to harm yourself during recovery.

During your PAT appointment you will be given a phone number to call a day or two before your surgery to let you know what time to arrive the day of your surgery. Once

Outpatient Surgery Waiting Room

your surgery day has arrived, please drive around to the rear of the hospital where you will once again find the “outpatient surgery” entrance (pictured to the right). There is parking for you here, as well as a waiting room, which is located inside the first door on your right once you enter the hospital. Please wait in this waiting room until a nurse comes to take you back to prepare for your surgery. Families of those patients having a microdiscectomy or lumbar laminectomy can wait in this waiting room since they will not be staying overnight. Because

3rd Floor Family Waiting Lounge

decompressive laminectomies and lumbar fusions with or without fixation require a longer operation and hospital stay, these families are asked to wait in the family waiting lounge located on the 3rd floor (pictured to the right).

Pre-Op Room

Once you are taken back to the pre-op area, you will again be asked many of the same questions you have already answered during the initial stages of preparing for surgery. A nurse will take your vital signs and may collect some blood work. You will also be given an IV so we can give you medication before and during your surgery.

Pre-Op Nurse

You will then be taken to the pre-op holding area and asked to change into a hospital gown. You will also be given some white compressive stockings to wear. These help prevent blood clots during and after surgery, so it is important to wear these until you come back to the office for your first post-op visit. You do not need to sleep in them, but put them on when you wake up and wear them until you go to bed. While you are here, Dr. Irby and Lindsey, as well as the anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist will come see you. If you are having epidural or spinal anesthesia (common for the microdiscectomy and lumbar laminectomy), it will be administered here.

Operating Room

When the operating room is ready, you will be taken back into the OR, which will look similar to the one you see here. There will be many people in this room to help with your surgery.

Once your surgery is complete, you will be taken to the recovery room and we will contact your family to update them on your progress. It is important for your family to stay in the designated waiting room so we know where to find them. You will probably be in the recovery room for 2 hours. The nurses here will help make your transition out of

Recovery Room Nurses

surgery as smooth as possible. Many patients having a microdiscectomy or lumbar laminectomy go home from here because they are feeling so well and want to be in their own surroundings with their own bed. You must be able to hold down food and medicine, urinate, walk, and not be running a fever in order to go home. If you are unable to go home, you will be taken to your room on the 5th floor. Those patients who have had a decompressive laminectomy or lumbar fusion with or without fixation will be taken to their room on the 3rd floor (pictured below).

3rd Floor Patient Room

3rd Floor Shower

The 3rd floor has been designed similar to a hotel to provide patients and their families with a comfortable and relaxing place to begin the recovery process. In your room there will be a private bathroom, complete with a shower, as well as a fold out Murphy bed that can accommodate one overnight guest. There is a dining room on the 3rd floor for patients

3rd Floor Commode

and their families. The day of surgery, a nurse will help you get out of bed and walk. It will be difficult because you will feel stiff and may have some back pain because of the surgery itself, but walking will help all of this improve. The day following surgery you will begin physical therapy with one of the therapists at the hospital.

3rd Floor Dining Room

When you leave the hospital, you will be given a list of discharge instructions, a prescription for pain medication, and an appointment to see Lindsey approximately 10-14 days after surgery. During the first appointment following surgery, you will most likely have your stitches or staples removed. If you had a microdiscectomy, lumbar laminectomy, or decompressive laminectomy, you will be given a prescription for physical therapy. If you had a lumbar fusion with or without fixation, we will take some x-rays so we can follow the fusion’s progression over the next few months. Driving and work status will be discussed during this visit.