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Operation tomorrow

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pgcity

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hiya all
I am going in hospital tomorrow for surgery to remove a lump in my neck and half my thyroid. I am hoping to stay on my pump. What has everyone else done when they have had an op and how I'd you manage afterwards?
 
Hiya 🙂 Firstly best wishes for tomorrow...

I had an op under general anesthetic back at the start of the year...the ward sister told me they'd never had a patient on a pump before & would put me on a sliding scale...we had a bit of a discussion & I explained as politely as I could that whilst I was perfectlh happy for them to plumb me up for fluids, glucose etc if they wanted, the best thing for control would be to leave me on the pump as I was confident my basal profile was pretty much spot on at that time & sliding scales always seem to be a faff in my experience. In the end she grudgingly agreed (i don't think they can remove it without permission anyway?!) & all was well. Her main worry was that she wasn't familiar with it & didn't know how to adjust the doses if necessary...so with that in mind it might help your case if you write down a simple guide to hand over tomorrow, along the lines of how to bolus if v high & how to switch off or tbr if running low - alternately you might just take the view that the only reason they'd need to do anything drastic would be canula failure or reservoir running low, in which case I guess they'd probably just whack you on a sliding scale til you came round & could sort things out yourself? I just showed her how to unclip the tube if I had a crashing hypo but asked them to resist the urge to fiddle...although not in so many words!! :D I'd do a set change & ensure a full reservoir tonight personally...

Hope that made sense?! Just talk it through with them...best of luck! 🙂
 
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I can't give you any advise on the pump but wanted to wish you good luck with the operation.
 
No advice, but wanted to say hope all goes well for you tomorrow.
 
I have had two operations since going on my pump a year ago. I stayed hooked up to it for both of them. They were both short operations, less than 30 mins. For one of them I put a 75% temp basal on for about 3 hours before hand, as I was running around 5 and wanted to make sure I did not hypo as nil by mouth.

I have not had any problems afterwards either, lots of testing whenever the nurses were doing obs.

Hope it all goes well.
 
Wishing you well for tomorrow.🙂
 
Ohh don't worry this will all be in your Care Plan that you have agreed beforehand .......

Clearly NOT.

You should meet the anaesthetist before you actually get wheeled into pre-op - he's the bloke that's responsible for keeping you in prime condition throughout, AND as one of mine mentioned, is also 100% responsible for making you wake up again afterwards. In prime condition. (I said I best not upset him then. He agreed LOL)

So I'd want to ask him what he proposes, sliding scale or pump?

Dunno how long your op will be, if it's ages then he has got to know what he needs to do with your pump and be comfortable that he does know it - but at the end of the day, a pump is only a mini and personal version of a sliding scale, so it isn't rocket science. However, because the SS is intravenous instead of subcutaneous, it could be that you wouldn't have to work so far in advance as you might with a pump? - so I don't know? I'd just need to be confident that he was confident!

FWIW I had a major op (Total Hysterectomy, and they found other stuff which took em a lot longer than normal) on a SS and my BG stayed at 5/5 point summat until 6 days later when I eventually escaped it's clutches. (I throw up after a GA. A LOT :D) They wondered if their monitor was broken at one stage so we used mine too, and it always read exactly the same!

Best diabetic control in my whole life before or since !

So please don't worry - unduly.
 
Thank you all so much for the good wishes. I have had a Pre op and explained that I would be staying on my pump for the surgery and I have written a crash course on using the pump and doing corrections. 5 copies are in my bag! 😱

The nurse at the Pre op appt did not seem to know whether the anaesthetist would 'allow' me to keep my pump on but I think I will be a little stroppy so I can get out as quickly as possible.
 
Not sure if ui are reading this or getting ready for op. I just wanted to say I hope all goes well and you are back on form very soon.
 
Thanks. Your good wishes are much appreciated
 
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