Having surgery soon?
There are a million different schemes to cope with diabetes before and during surgery.
Some advice:
- Double check with the doctor (or dentist) whether it's
possible to change the cut-off time for when you're not allowed to eat
(called in medical lingo "NPO").
Frequently, patients are told to withhold both food and water after midnight, but
six hours without food is usually plenty,
and if you point out that you don't want to get dehydrated, they'll probably
agree with changing the "NPO" time to much closer to the actual time of your
procedure.
- What to do with your insulin depends on what program you're on: if
lispro
or
aspart
or
Regular
is the only insulin that you take in the morning, withholding
it is inviting trouble! (On the other hand, if you're on NPH or other
"cloudy" insulin also, the doses might be cut back or continued unchanged. And
Lantus doses can usually be continue unchanged.) You'll have to
ask your diabetes doc what he/she would advise.
- Don't listen to insulin advice from anyone but your usual diabetes
team! If the surgeon or anesthesiologist or dentist (or their nurse who talks to their pre-op
patients) says something that doesn't make sense to you, tell your diabetes
doctor, and ask him/her to intercede on your behalf, by contacting the
surgeon and explaining what should be done!
- Plan to bring your blood sugar meter with you on the day of the
surgery. If there are long delays, you could check your own sugar level now
and then, and be sure everything's going reasonably well.
- If you're going to be knocked out with a general anesthetic, be sure
someone knows how to check your sugar while you're unconscious, and that
they plan to do it occasionally (perhaps every hour while you're out or
groggy afterwards).
- If you're going to be knocked out with a general anesthetic, be sure
you have an "i.v." (intravenous line) to give you fluids and minerals and
dextrose as needed.
Also see
questions to ask your doctor before you have surgery
surgery
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