Before you leave home
Follow the hospital’s own instructions about eating, drinking and medication. Those instructions are the bit that matters clinically; this is the practical stuff around them.
Keep the things you will definitely need together rather than distributed beautifully across six different pockets.
- Phone and charger.
- Glasses, hearing aids or anything else you rely on to communicate comfortably.
- Bank card and any paperwork the hospital has asked you to bring.
- A written medication list if you use one.
- Something genuinely easy to do while you wait.
And wear clothes you will not have to fight with later. Day surgery is not the occasion for skinny jeans, elaborate boots or anything requiring a committee to get you back into it.
The waiting is often the longest bit
People understandably focus on the procedure itself. From the patient side, an awful lot of day surgery can be sitting around before and after it.
You may be too distracted to read anything complicated and too tired afterwards to care what happens in chapter twelve. Short, low-concentration entertainment tends to win: downloaded television, an audiobook, puzzle book, colouring, a simple game on your phone — anything you can put down instantly when somebody calls your name.
Headphones are useful. So is downloading things before you leave home rather than discovering the hospital wifi has other plans.
Clothes that do not turn into a puzzle
Loose, soft and easy to put back on is the entire brief.
- Front-opening tops or zip layers are handy if an arm has been used for a cannula or line.
- Loose waistbands are kinder if your abdomen is sore or you simply feel bloated and uncomfortable afterwards.
- Slip-on is useful for clothes. Less so for footwear: if you are unsteady, proper secure shoes or slippers are a better bet than something flapping around your heels.
- A cardigan or zip-up hoodie is useful because hospitals have a supernatural ability to be freezing and boiling on the same day.
Nobody gets a prize for looking elegant in the discharge lounge. Comfortable wins.
The journey home
This is the bit people often under-plan because the main event feels like getting through the procedure.
Before the day, make sure you understand the hospital’s instructions about going home and whether somebody needs to collect or stay with you. Those requirements vary with the procedure and anaesthetic, so the hospital’s instructions take priority.
Practical things that help:
- Have whoever is collecting you know exactly where they need to be.
- Keep the trip home simple. This is not the moment to stop at three shops because you are “already out”.
- Put a pillow or folded blanket in the car if having something soft between you and a seat belt or hard edge would make the journey more comfortable — but only where it does not interfere with the seat belt working properly.
The first evening back home
When you get home, being organised suddenly feels like an extravagant luxury.
Before surgery day, make yourself a small recovery nest rather than assuming Future You will fancy pottering around gathering things.
Put the charger, water, remote, tissues, medication you have been told to take, glasses and whatever you plan to watch or listen to within easy reach.
Have comfortable clothes ready. Move things you use every day down from stupidly high shelves. If bending, reaching or twisting is likely to be awkward, think about that before you leave for hospital rather than while standing in the kitchen afterwards wondering who designed cupboards.
If somebody wants to help, this is excellent work for them. You do not need a ceremonial fruit basket. You need your phone plugged in and the kettle-side chaos under control.
The small stuff that makes the day easier
A long charging cable is disproportionately useful when the nearest socket is nowhere near the chair.
A warm layer earns its keep before, during and after.
And if you wear glasses, bring the case. We have all done the optimistic “I’ll just put them here for a minute” thing. Hospital bedding is not a filing system.
When the day does not go to plan
Sometimes day surgery becomes an overnight stay. It happens.
You do not need to arrive carrying luggage for a fortnight just in case, but it is worth having somebody at home who knows where your basic overnight things are if plans change.
A photo of the exact pyjamas, charger or wash bag you mean can save everyone a surprising amount of domestic archaeology.
This is practical guidance, not medical advice. Hospitals, procedures and individual needs vary, so use what helps and ignore what doesn’t. Follow the instructions given by your hospital for anything clinical.
Printed from thesicklist.co.uk/guides/what-to-pack-for-day-surgery