The best care starts with getting your questions answered. When our patients show up to surgery knowing what to expect, the path to recovery has the best possible starting line.
Our team has compiled resources and answers to common questions about surgery, scheduling, insurance and coverage, post-operative care and nutrition, and more. If you have other questions, please call our office at 312-432-2517.
In general, we want you to stay as active as possible leading up to surgery. The stronger and more active you are going in, the more prepared for your recovery you will be. With that being said, we want you to limit activities that exacerbate your pain in the weeks leading up to surgery. As your surgical date approaches, try to avoid potential sick contacts to best prevent illness prior to surgery.
Your preoperative clearance appointment provider will review your list of medications and discuss any that will need to be stopped before surgery. For certain specific medications, please defer to the regular prescriber of that medication. In general, we ask that you hold all vitamins and supplements seven days prior. Tylenol (acetaminophen) is the preferred over the counter pain medication in the week leading up to surgery, but we ask you do not take any over-the-counter medications beginning at midnight on the day of surgery. Blood thinners and GLP1 medications must also be stopped, typically one week prior to surgery. Most regular home medications can be resumed on the first day after surgery. More specific guidelines for medications that should be held will be discussed with you during our live virtual teaching class and your preoperative clearance appointment.
Your postoperative medications that our team prescribes for you will be sent to the Jewel Osco pharmacy on Canal Street about three weeks in advance of surgery. We will deliver all of these medications to you at your surgery location on the day of surgery. The preoperative wash and nasal ointment will be sent in to your local pharmacy at least one week prior to your surgical date and should be started 5 days in advance of surgery. We will be notified by your local pharmacy on file when these are ready for pick up.
After a steroid injection, the soonest you can have surgery is exactly three months. After a gel injection, the soonest surgery can be scheduled for is exactly six weeks. This reduces your risk of infection going into surgery.
The exact time that you must arrive on the morning of surgery will be given to you the afternoon prior.
We ask that you arrive in comfortable, loose-fitting clothing and supportive shoes that you can safely wear while meeting with our onsite physical therapist. If you are staying overnight, please bring a phone charger and CPAP machine, if applicable.
Our team recommends various additional items such as an ice machine and nutrition bundle. Additional information regarding these items will be given to you in several patient handouts and during our live teaching class.
The ice machine can be purchased directly through the DME (Durable Medical Equipment) Store at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush. You can connect with them by calling 312-432-2482 or visiting any MOR DME store location directly.
Enroute is a nutrition bundle specifically designed to optimize you for surgery and further support your recovery. It can be purchased via the RUSH DME store, that can be reached at 312-432-2482. Leading up to surgery, we encourage you to optimize protein in your diet as much as possible, ideally to a goal of about 1.2-1.5 g/kg of body weight per day. For most patients this means ensuring you are getting roughly 30g of protein per meal.