You will be receiving a phone call from our office surgery scheduler (Elly) within 5 working days, regarding the date reserved for surgery. Please notify us of any general scheduling preferences before we reserve the operating room and obtain insurance authorization. We have maps and parking directions to the hospital that may be useful to someone who will be picking you up when you are ready to go home.
Certain surgical procedures require special advanced consent forms to be signed. If you are having a hysterectomy, or a tubal ligation, you must sign the State Consent Form. Be sure to bring the copy of the consent form with you to pre-register at the hospital. The hospital is required to have a copy in your chart.
Your physician would like to review your medical condition during a consultation visit and answer any questions. In addition, we have pre-printed materials regarding many gynecological problems, pregnancy issues, and fertility tests. The information is general and may help you to better understand the terminology used and answer questions.
Before your surgery decision is made, you may need 1 or 2 more visits with us to plan and discuss the various options, risks, benefits and alternatives of surgery. Please let us know if you need to discuss any concerns, involve any other significant others in the decision process, obtain a second opinion, or check back with your primary doctor. For "low risk" patients, you often will not need to return to your primary care doctor for clearance for surgery unless he or she prefers you to do so. If you have any significant medical conditions or problems, please inform us so that we can have your primary doctor evaluate you for surgical clearance and dictate a history and physical report before surgery.
For patients who are still menstruating, we would like to know when your last menstrual period occurs at all times. I there is any possibility of pregnancy, we need to be informed. Additionally, we need to know what your fertility plans are if applicable.
Your doctor will be sending a letter to your primary care doctor, if you have one, regarding your medical condition, the planned surgery, hospital location and date of surgery. We generally do not call them to see you unless there are medical problems to deal with. Some patients will need an EKG, Chest x-ray or Pulmonary Function Test before surgery. Have you done your mammogram yet? If you are due, we prefer that you are up to date.
In most circumstance, minor procedures will not require blood transfusions, but the law requires that any person undergoing a procedure that could result in blood loss should be informed regarding the options of having a blood transfusion from a designated donor, auto transfused blood or random blood bank donors. We will discuss with you the options and the chances of needing blood but the choice is a personal one. For certain patients, the risk is so low that they do not wish to give blood for themselves before surgery since it will likely be thrown away afterwards. Other patients wish to give blood for themselves and take some Iron (with or without stool softener). Be aware that your auto-donated blood is usable for 40 days so you can not donate too far in advance or too close to surgery. Regardless of your decision, we need you to sign an acknowledgement form regarding blood transfusion options and we do recommend for you to give blood for yourself if your health condition permits.
If your surgery scheduler has not called you with a date and time of surgery within one week, please give the office a call and leave Eleanor a message at (415) 563-9000. Irene Lin or Cynthia Hom, our practice Advice Nurses will be available to answer your questions at (415) 753-2929, during regular office hours and assist you in preparing and recovering from your procedure. Drs. Shu, Chun, and Chu share on-call services 24 hours a day on a rotating basis to be available for any concerns and to care for any medical needs. We expect your medical condition to improve each day. If your recovery does not get better as the hours pass or there are any set backs; your doctors want to be informed since we expect you to feel better and better with time.
