Surgery Monday - I have a big issue!

[Liandoolb]

Hi all, I have an issue and would like your advice.

My surgery is this coming Monday (30th April) and at the time of my initial consultation and booking, the surgeon's consultant said it would be fine to travel home via a cab or a hired private car.

However, now merely DAYS before my surgery, the hospital has said it is a requirement of theirs that I am accompanied home by a friend / family member.

I'm at a loss. My parents live hours away from the hospital and can't get the time off work to travel in and my sister - whose place I will be staying at - has a very important work meeting that won't finish until the evening.

I have very few friends close enough to the hospital to be able to call in a favour, and I don't really trust any of them enough to tell them about gyne or my surgery anyway.

My hospital fees are already paid and will only cover up to 4 hours in the hospital after surgery. This will be MANY hours before my sister finishes work. Booking for overnight stay will be nearly impossible as I simply do not have the money for that.

I was just wondering what you'd do in this situation?

[greatlakes]

How would anyone know who is picking you up? Tell them the driver is your cousin!

[Liandoolb]

Not a bad idea. Do hospital staff generally need you to be accompanied out? They seemed to talk as if I needed to have someone come in and actually "assist" me out. From what my doc has told me and what I've read here - I will be perfectly fine to walk on my own!

They even made me fill out details of the person who would be assisting me home. I told the surgeon's consultant after my pre-op appointment that if the hospital won't let me get a cab, then I'm still unsure who can pick me up, so she just wrote "TBA" before faxing it to them.

[greatlakes]

Not sure where you are located. However, this has been discussed elsewhere on the board. Apparently there are medical assistance transports (as opposed to just a cab) that provide transportation for patients.

[Liandoolb]

Cheers. I looked into patient transport services in Sydney and couldn't find a lot. I can only assume most of that kind of thing is usually booked in advance by the hospital? It's now only about 12 hours before my surgery and I still have no way of getting home. I'll have to talk to the hospital staff when I get there to try and work something out, because there's no way anyone I know can pick me up. I just wish I hadn't been told I could get a cab at the beginning, then I wouldn't be in this pickle.

I just hope I don't have to fork out another thousand dollars or so for an overnight stay! Ouch! It's not like I'm going to be unsupervised over the night, I'll have someone with me within hours, so I don't see that that would be necessary.

[Liandoolb]

Just a follow up on my issue: explained the situation to hospital staff and they were okay with letting me get a cab. They asked me sign another form releasing them from liability if anything went wrong on the journey home, which was fair enough. Anyway, op went well and I'm now safely home "recovering"!

[greatlakes]

Good for you. Glad you got out okay and things went well. Let us know how the recovery goes.