I had a phonecall from the hospital that are planning on poking around in my ankle next week, asking various questions about whether I was fit for surgery etc. Told them I was fine, and all was good with the world.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve managed to pick up some kind of “freshers flu”, and am now feeling really rather rubbish (Coughing, snot & sore throat…)

I’ve got until Monday to kick it into touch, but if I’m still feeling ill by then, does anyone know if they’ll cancel me and reschedule?

Not a nurse so take my anaesthetic knowledge with a pinch of salt but if youre coughing gunk up on the day they’ll bin your op, if you were coughing gunk up a month ago and youre fine it will be OK but if youre in the middle ground (as you are) it will depend which way the winds blowing and which person you see at the time

Best of luck

Its more of a risk with children, but having an upper respiratory tract infection increases your chance of having air way hyper reactivity – basically increases the chances slightly you could get laryngospasm – where your vocal chords close post surgery or bronchospasm – where your airways narrow.

Like I said the evidence is mostly for it being a problem in children – but for a purely elective procedure – which it sounds like yours is most anaesthetists would say to wait until your cold has improved.

(I’m a trainee anaesthetist)

Thanks for the advice. It is elective (brostrom repair) so it looks like it might be canned.

Will give the hospital a call towards the end of the week if nothing’s improved so there’s the chance they can fill the slot as it were.

I wouldn’t cancel. Who knows when they will get the next slot. Just turn up. If they think you’re too sick they won’t do it. If you call them an tell them you think you might be sick you will be put at the bottom of the waiting list again.

Turning up knowing that I’m probably going to get cancelled seems a selfish thing to do, especially if there’s the potential for someone benefiting from my misfortune.

Good luck with waiting for your next appointment then.
If you really had flu you would not be posting on here.
Do you really think you’ll be so sick in a week that they’ll tell you no surgery? Good luck with the operation. Get it done asap.

If you do turn up with a cold, they have the option to send you home, but also the option to use regional anaesthesia. Any decent anaesthetist who works in ortho theatres will have a raft of regional anaesthesia techniques from epidural, spinal, epi-spinal, femoral and/or popliteal nerve blocks. It’s likely that they would do something like that anyway, plus a light GA using a laryngeal mask. I’d go and see what they say.

Any “decent anaesthetist” would say wait till you are well – regional is an option – but you wouldn’t want a full spinal for a day case procedure – and otherwise unless you have an anaesthetist who specialises in regional anaesthesia they probably wont be happy doing you awake just under blocks. If your in a big ortho place that does lots of regionals maybe different. I haven’t got any experience of this particular op. Some ortho surgeons are also very unkeen on blocks because it can mask problems with compartment syndrome post op – but that shouldnt be a problem with an ankle.

Where I work I know alot of consultant anaesthetists who work various lists who are crap at blocks.

It all depends how bad your cold is – which cant be decided over the internet – and how long they would have to reschedule you for. The other factor is that its ultimately your decision – you could say that I’m happy to take the risk, me I would wait for a couple of weeks if thats an option.

benjamins11, & Crikey: Thanks for the info, it’s much appreciated.