Patient’s Surgical Journey

Congratulations on your decision to undergo bariatric surgery. Upon arrival to the department, you will be greeted by out coordinator. After getting your registration and unique ID, you will be meeting our nurse or counsellor for basic assessment along with body composition analysis which will take about 10 minutes. Post that you will meet our Nutritionist which will take another 20 minutes. Once done with the preliminary documentation of history and comorbidity data, you will be meeting the bariatric surgeon. He / She will be documenting a detailed obesity and metabolic assessment along with thorough examination before arriving at a preliminary diagnosis. This consultation will take around 30 minutes. After this initial hour at the department’s office, you will be directed back to the coordinator with recommendations to help arrive at a final diagnosis which involves blood and radiology investigations as described in obesity assessment. These tests are done in empty stomach and may take couple of days for the reports to arrive. You will be given a review date at the time of leaving the unit. You can reach our helpline for all emergencies and further informations.

A typical arrival to the hospital for admission will be on the evening before surgery. You arty required to just carry a change of cloth and all your previous medical documents. You will report to the admission desk, and the documentation takes just 5 minutes, and you will be directed and accompanied by the guest relation officer to your room. Upon arrival to your room, the nurse will greet you. Once you settle down, you will be going through a case record and vitals documentation process. You will be undergoing some bowel and lung preparation to aid for an uneventful surgical process. A select few low risk patients may be taught to do the same at home and can arrive directly on the day of surgery just 4-6 hours earlier. The nurse will explain the entire process that takes place in the hospital. You will be able to reach our helpline for any further information.

You will need to fill out some paperwork. We will help you understand what the paperwork means, and you can have a friend or family member with you during this time. Our staff will give you a gown to change into, which you will wear until you change to go home after recovery. When you are taken to the operating room, we will likely put sticky pads on your chest to track your heartbeat. We’ll also give you an oxygen mask you’ll wear through the procedure. We will start an IV that will be used to give you pain medicine and anesthesia to make you feel calm and fall asleep before your procedure. You will not remember what happens during the procedure and may not remember talking with the doctor. After our Anesthesiologist gives you medication to make you fall asleep, the next thing you know you’ll be waking up in the recovery room. Some patients do not remember their time in the recovery room either.

Once your vital and physical parameters are found to be stable, you and your attending member will be given discharge instructions. Incidentally it will be about 24 hours after surgery. We will confirm the date and time of your first follow up appointment which will normally fall a week after discharge.. We may give you a prescription for all medication and supplements. You will be reminded of your eating plan for the first 4 weeks, which will start out with liquids only. Remember, our team will be available to answer any questions you have about your surgery and recovery 24X7.

Once you have completed your investigations, you will be visiting us again with the reports on the scheduled date. You will be meeting the nutritionist and the surgeon again to review the records and arrive at final diagnosis and plan the appropriate surgery that suits your diagnosis which gives the best quality of life, weight loss and resolution of associated diseases. You will then be meting associated specialist consultants for your surgical fitness like diatetologist, lung specialist, cardiologist, gynaecolist,etc as per the disease presentations. Finally you will meet our anaesthetist to get the clearance for your surgery. These opinions may need some additional investigations a nd take a couple days. Once through, you will visit us back to finalise the date of surgery. You will be given a special liquid diet and medications to follow for 3-5 days prior to the date of admission for surgery. This diet will help shrink the liver and intestines which creates better access and working space during surgery. Pre-surgical medications if any will help reduce the anaesthetic & surgical risks involved during the procedure. Your surgical time and desired room will be booked in advance by the end of the review consultation.

Your surgeon and support staff will meet you in the morning of the surgery. We will make sure you’re ready for surgery and will review exactly what’s going to happen that day. We’ll also make sure you understand the post-operative process immediately after surgery and the entire day that follows. Most patients are nervous on the day of surgery. This is very normal, and our staff will be there to make sure you feel supported. You will requested to remove all ornaments and have disinfectant bath and change in to fresh hospital robes. You can be rest assured to have a safe, comfortable, and successful surgery day.

You will be effectively shifted back to the room in four hours, except in rare instances you may be shifted to high dependency surgical unit for some additional monitoring. Six hours after surgery you will be given some sips of water to drink. We also will likely ask you to try standing up and walking with help. You may spend several hours up to a day in the hospital, depending on which procedure you had and how your recovery is going on. You will be started on sips of clear liquids 6 – 8 hours after surgery and started on 30 ml liquid diet the next morning. Once you are comfortable with the clear liquids, you will be migrating to 50 – 80 ml full liquid diet by noon on the day after surgery. All your intravenous injections will be moved to oral medications. You will be removed off the bandages on the scars and allowed to take bath if you’re comfortable. Recovery is expected to be uneventful expect in super obese patients with major pre-op respiratory issues.

Most of our patients leave the hospital the day after the procedure except in rare circumstances like during nausea, vomiting, and pain. Because our Bariatric procedures are often done laparoscopically or Robotically either by 3 ports or single port, the recovery time is shorter on average than it would be with a conventional technique. You will also be given nutritional and protein supplements for the next 4 weeks to take home with you.