Would you have elective surgery next week? UPDATE! Page 4

[snappy]

I would have said yes, but this virus strain that is more transmissible is worrying me. If it is elective, I personally would ask my husband to wait. We are in the age group they have been telling all along to hunker down, which we have, but are not prioritized in Tier 1b. So we wait and isolate.

 

[barkley]

Being inpatient for therapy, I think would be riskier. You have all staff coming and going everyday. I work in a skilled nursing facility and it spread like wildfire once we got our 1st case. I believe home would be safer.

i think going to the local pt place would be safest. if they are operating similarly to all our other by appointment med providers then a patient is only allowed a 5-10 minute prior to arrival window to enter the building prior to which they are temp'd and directed to a specific seat (anyone bringing them has to remain outside the building). when the patient's turn comes up the seat they were in is disinfected and they are treated in a newly disinfected room w/ disinfected equipment by a provider in disposable garments that go over their regular med clothing. at the end of the appointment the room/equipment is once again disinfected (and they seem to rotate rooms to allow for down time between usage), the disposable garb is tossed and it starts all over for the next patient.

 

[ajlsjl]

I would have the surgery next week, for two reasons: 1) Your husband's injury could get worse if he postpones the surgery (I speak from experience on this one); 2) Being in a hospital/outpatient surgery center (or any medical facility) is one of the safest places you can be in right now. Yes, there is still a risk of contracting COVID, but the risk is less than going grocery shopping, etc.

Good luck with the decision!

 

[Gracedis1]

My husband had knee surgery in December. All was well until he got Covid just before Christmas. He thinks he got it from physical therapy since that’s the only place he goes. Thankfully his case was mild.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My husband had knee surgery in December. All was well until he got Covid just before Christmas. He thinks he got it from physical therapy since that’s the only place he goes. Thankfully his case was mild.

Where do you go though? Was anyone else around him?

 

[dvcgirl67]

I would have said yes, but this virus strain that is more transmissible is worrying me. If it is elective, I personally would ask my husband to wait. We are in the age group they have been telling all along to hunker down, which we have, but are not prioritized in Tier 1b. So we wait and isolate.

This is what I was thinking as well. I do know a woman who recently had hip surgery, has had to go the PT...and so far she's fine. My father and mother-in-law have been hospitalized during Covid and they managed not to get it. But we've also had an outbreak of hospital employees in a local hospital where over 100 were infected, many were asymptotic.

And so if your DH isn't in excruciating pain and putting off the surgery wouldn't lead to permanent damage to his shoulder, I'd probably put it off until we start to see much less community spread, or he gets the vaccine.

 

[snappy]

I did not have to have surgery on my shoulder when I had a small tear in the rotator cuff, but I had an elective procedure called PRP ( platelet rich plasma) injection done in 2010. It was done outpatient in a treatment room, but because the pain was intense, I actually fainted while sitting down and hit my body against a shelving unit next to the chair I was in. I ended up with fierce muscle spasms that did resolve, but I also ended up with frozen shoulder that required many weeks of painful PT to break the adhesions that formed in my shoulder. I personally would not risk the possibility of needing weeks of PT at this time, regardless of the protocols used in PT clinics, if the surgery is elective.

 

[China Expat]

I need to have a large hernia repaired, but the hospital is seeing patients in the parking lot (LA County). No surgery for a while.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I did my mammo and a round of bloodwork in August when numbers were lowest and it was safeer. There are other visits the Dr's want in person and some more tests, I booked everything in April because, first, they need all the ppe and hands possible and second, I will not be a drain of resources. If something goes wrong the absolute last place I want to be in in a facility right now, also sick people are in hospital settings & do not want to be anywhere sick people congregate nor do I want to be around caregivers or the people who clean the facilities. Unless it's life or death what I need will keep to April & that's what I told my Dr's, they said they understood. Instead I just check in time to time in email and that seems to be working.

My guess is they can't advise against immediate procedures due to covid but I also guess if they thought I was making a bad decision they would be more convincing.

 

[MrsPete]

When you said "elective", I thought you meant something like a nose job. If he's in pain, his surgery isn't elective. Do it. Be careful, but do it.

 

[prairie_girl]

I literally can not wrap my head around years long waitlists for surgery. My sister just had surgery on her thumb 2 days ago. It was booked 10 days ago.

Yes, I would have the surgery and not worry. Hospitals and outpatient surgery clinics are taking all the necessary precautions around here.

Think about it this way. Everyone in our country can have that surgery so we have to wait our turn. You have to wait only with the people who can afford to have the surgery so you have shorter wait times.

 

[mousefan73]

Think about it this way. Everyone in our country can have that surgery so we have to wait our turn. You have to wait only with the people who can afford to have the surgery so you have shorter wait times.

Yeah but I’ll still don’t get it. One always hears how in Canada people have to wait forever for surgeries. Here in Germany we basically have the same system and you don’t hear the same thing about people having to wait forever. Granted I got lucky with my ankle surgery I was able to schedule one within four weeks. Due to a cancellation. Or I would have had to wait till end of March / April. Even that I don’t think it’s too long of a wait. I’ve known so many with hip and knee surgeries and nobody had to wait “years”.

I wonder if the per capita/surgeon Ratio is just very low in Canada?

 

[prairie_girl]

Yeah but I’ll still don’t get it. One always hears how in Canada people have to wait forever for surgeries. Here in Germany we basically have the same system and you don’t hear the same thing about people having to wait forever. Granted I got lucky with my ankle surgery I was able to schedule one within four weeks. Due to a cancellation. Or I would have had to wait till end of March / April. Even that I don’t think it’s too long of a wait. I’ve known so many with hip and knee surgeries and nobody had to wait “years”.

I agree, we are far from perfect. I know politics aren’t allowed here, so I won’t get into it any further. I don’t want to potentially get points.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

When you said "elective", I thought you meant something like a nose job. If he's in pain, his surgery isn't elective. Do it. Be careful, but do it.

Elective surgeries encompass a ton of stuff. In this pandemic elective surgeries that have been halted have been of all sorts of things. I mentioned many months ago my mom's total knee replacement would have been considered an elective surgery.

 

[gwynne]

When you said "elective", I thought you meant something like a nose job. If he's in pain, his surgery isn't elective. Do it. Be careful, but do it.

It is an "elective surgery"
The words can be confusing as they are used in medicine.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I would have said yes 4 months ago but now I'm not so sure. A family member works in an outpatient surgery center and they had a Covid outbreak within the office. The response from the office manager and local health department was... interesting to say the least. Basically was "go get tested if you get symptoms and if you're not comfortable coming to work, you can use your vacation time." This was in Illinois so not a state with a lack luster response to the pandemic.

Our lack of a coordinated response to this pandemic has been a weak point from the start and this just reinforced that for me.

 

[gwynne]

I would have said yes 4 months ago but now I'm not so sure. A family member works in an outpatient surgery center and they had a Covid outbreak within the office. The response from the office manager and local health department was... interesting to say the least. Basically was "go get tested if you get symptoms and if you're not comfortable coming to work, you can use your vacation time." This was in Illinois so not a state with a lack luster response to the pandemic.

Our lack of a coordinated response to this pandemic has been a weak point from the start and this just reinforced that for me.

And the other tricky part to this equation-many hospitals rely heavily on elective surgery dollars.
Covid brings so many difficult complications.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I'd be more concerned with transmission happening at a market than in a hospital.

 

[cvjw]

Think about it this way. Everyone in our country can have that surgery so we have to wait our turn. You have to wait only with the people who can afford to have the surgery so you have shorter wait times.

Afford to have surgery? That is why we have insurance. Also, if people can’t afford insurance, we have Medicaid. I could not imagine my 76 year old father having to wait years for his hip and knee replacements that he had this year - yes, during covid. Both were scheduled within a month of the Dr telling him he needed one. The pain was so intense for both of them that he was in constant pain.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Think about it this way. Everyone in our country can have that surgery so we have to wait our turn. You have to wait only with the people who can afford to have the surgery so you have shorter wait times.

That's not quite how it works though. Everyone likes to compare to everyone else but not every system is set up the same way even with Universal healthcare, there are different types of that used throughout various countries. In the U.S. we don't have shorter waiting times simply because person A can afford it but person B simply cannot.

One of my sister-in-laws does not have health insurance. She needed dental work done, she used a payment plan worked out with the dental office to help cover the costs meaning when the procedure was done it was not paid in full. She got her appointment the same time frame as someone who would have had their dental work done with insurance covering the costs (less whatever financial obligation one may have with the particular health insurance plan).