post surgery infections - diagnosis/treatment?

[sahuaro]

Yes, thanks, Maria! I am just about to schedule a routine colonoscopy and never thought about the possibility of infection--something else to get anxious about! But now I know why the nurses wrapped me in those cozy, warm blankets after my shoulder surgeries!

K L Aguilar: Your experience sounds really frightening--and such an awful way to enter the postpartum period with your new baby. Do you think that your surgeons are more watchful now with any other procedures/surgeries, given your history, or that their care provided for you is just their standard?

[KL Aguilar]

Sahuaro,

My experience was made even worse by the fact that I used to wear contacts (have since had laser surgery) and was not permitted to in the hospital. I had glasses, but the prescription was very old and the glasses were basically useless. They would bring my baby to the doorway of the ICU unit every day, but not bring her in. I could see there was a baby, but nothing to identify her in any way. She went home after a few days and I stayed in the hospital. I did not meet my daughter until I went home ten days after her birth.

As I said, my standard procedure is to ask about post-op infections. It is not that I am in more danger of a post-op infection, but that I am paranoid about one. Every time I have done so, I have been told that the surgeon always has antibiotics administered thru the IV. I am not sure if all surgeons do this, but every surgeon I have talked to since 1978 for any family member having surgery has told me the same thing.