Written at 6am because I've been awake since 4 anyway and I am, frankly, in a state.
Surgery is a week tomorrow. Liver shrink diet is DONE, I've been a saint, my apprentice has forgiven me, the bag is half packed. And this morning I've woken up with a nose like a tap, a throat like sandpaper and that heavy head thing. No temperature that I can tell, I've had the thermometer out three times. Not on my chest, I don't think. Just a stinking cold, the kind the kids bring home every term and I usually shrug off in four days.
So. Two questions, and I want the real answer not the nice one. Does a cold actually cancel a sleeve, or is that only if you're properly ill with a chest thing? And the bit I'm ashamed to type: do I ring the hospital NOW and risk them pulling the date, or do I keep my head down, dose myself up and see if it's gone by Monday? Because I know what I WANT to do and I'm fairly sure it's the wrong thing.
Also, if they do cancel, does the liver diet count for nothing and I have to do the whole fortnight again? Because I might actually cry.
Ring them. Today. I know, I know, but the pre-op nurses hear this every single week and they'd far rather know now than find out at 7am on the ward with a theatre slot going to waste.
Mine wasn't cancelled for a cold but the woman in the bed opposite me had been sent home the week before with a chesty cough and rebooked, so it does happen, it's just not automatic.
Sniffles no, chest yes, is how my anaesthetist put it when I asked the same thing at my pre-op. Tell them, let them decide, and put the cold and flu sachets DOWN until someone's said they're fine with what's in them.
Pete, the direct answer first: an ordinary head cold, no fever, no productive cough, chest clear, nothing on the airway, does not usually cancel a sleeve, and most units would go ahead. What does cancel is a lower respiratory infection or anything that makes you generally unwell: a temperature, a wet cough bringing up coloured phlegm, wheeze, tightness in the chest, or feeling washed out rather than just bunged up. The reason is the anaesthetic, not the operation. An inflamed airway is more reactive under a general anaesthetic, and the risks that go up are breathing complications during the case and a chest infection afterwards, on top of an abdomen that has just been operated on and does not want you coughing hard. Nobody cancels for the sake of it; it is a judgement about whether your airway is in a fit state for that day.
On whether to ring: yes, and Donna has already given you the practical reason. The pre-op assessment team can note it, tell you what to watch for over the next week, and if there is any doubt, arrange to check you over on the morning rather than leaving it to a snap decision in the anaesthetic room. Quietly hoping it clears means the first person to know is the anaesthetist at 7am, which is the worst point in the process for anyone to be finding out. Keeping quiet also does not get you the operation any faster, because the assessment happens on the day regardless.
Your other worries, in order. The liver diet is not wasted by a week's delay; if a cancellation ran to several weeks most units would ask you to repeat or extend part of it, and yours will tell you exactly what, so do not assume the full fortnight. Keep following the sheet as written until someone tells you otherwise. Over the counter remedies need checking rather than guessing: many combination products contain an anti-inflammatory or a decongestant, and pre-op instructions about what to take in the final days are specific for a reason, which the site's guide to preparing for gastric sleeve surgery sets out. Rest, fluids, and plain paracetamol if your own team say so are the usual answer for a simple cold. And if it does have to move, the typical rebooking after a chest infection is once you have been well for a couple of weeks, not months. Ring the number on your letter this morning.
Adding one thing nobody's said: the morning itself. Even if you're fine, they'll ask you again at admission, listen to your chest, and check your temperature before you go anywhere near theatre. So the decision genuinely isn't made until then, which I found weirdly reassuring when I had a scratchy throat the week before mine. Turned out to be nothing, went ahead as planned.
Rang them, obviously, once I'd stopped being a coward. Nurse was completely unbothered, wrote it down, told me what would count as a problem (temperature, chesty cough, feeling rough) and said if any of that arrived to ring back the same day. None of it did. Cold peaked Wednesday and I've had two clear days.
Went in for my pre-admission call this afternoon, chest listened to, temperature fine, and I've been told to turn up tomorrow at 7 as planned. Bag is packed for the fourth time. Thank you, all of you, and Alan, the sachets stayed in the cupboard. Next post will be from the other side.
This thread locked automatically 60 days after its last post. If you landed here worrying about your own weight, diet stage, or symptoms, that conversation belongs with your bariatric team, who have your notes; a forum full of strangers doesn't.
