Should I meet the anesthesiologist before surgery?

@charlotte12 - my experience has been (last 2 surgeries at same hospital): a couple of days before surgery hospital emails me a form to fill out. I don't fill it out, so a nurse calls me and we go thru the form and I get to ask questions about the procedure. Day of surgery, I'm in the pre-op cubicle, on bed/guerney in hospital gown, and both surgeon and anesthesiologist visit (not necessarily together) to review what will happen. Anesthesiologist reviews things like previous surgeries. Then you are presented with informed consent to sign.

It's all very organized. Good luck!

thank you, I think that is a smart way to get answers to your questions, instead of just
submitting the form-

@charlotte12 I had two surgeries at Mayo both at their Methodist Hospital. The first was the hysterectomy for endometrial cancer and the second was for a hip replacement. For both surgeries I met the anesthesiologist shortly before when they came to talk with me about the anesthesia. I had general anesthesia for the hysterectomy so that conversation was about what would happen in the operating room, and that the "screening" I had the day before which included blood tests, EKG, and a lung x-ray all looked good to proceed. For the hip replacement I had a choice of anesthesias so the anesthesiologist talked with me in detail about these choices. I got to talk with the anesthesiologist about my fears about the surgery and he was very reassuring. He answered my questions.

Whether or not you meet the anesthesiologist right before your surgery or before that could be answered by your surgeon or their office. Does that seem like a good idea to you?

thank you for sharing your experience, I will not have the screening you had the day before the surgery, it has not been mentioned to me, I had blood test, EKG about 4 weeks ago with the oncology clinic, and a lung x-ray
with the FCP about 2 weeks ago, I will ask about their protocol before surgery-if there is any?

@charlotte12 It sounds like you had the same screenings I did but in a different time frame. It sure decreases anxiety for me when I know something about what to expect for surgery. I hope you get some information that will be helpful to you.

Yes. I’m with Kaiser and I met several times prior to my surgery. I was very concerned about anesthesia (very sensitive, some fa
Ily members have trouble waking after sedation, I’d never had surgery or anesthesia before) and the team responsible explained everything including how they were fine tuning the anesthesia and monitoring during procedure including extra care for dosing and nausea management. Very positive. No side effects and I felt safe and well cared for throughout!

I met the anesthesiologist in the pre-op room, before I was moved to the op-room, short exchange who he was, I was moved in the op room, I
quickly had a kind of clear rubber mask placed over my nose and that was it till I awoke in the recovery area
after about 3 hours.

If you have any problems with anesthesia you should let it be known 1-2 weeks prior to surgery. Then the meeting with the anesthesiologist is basically a meet and greet. The first surgery I had (5 years ago) had anesthesia much too strong for me. I made notes and shared them for the next time. The next two surgeries were much easier in that way - they even gave me a patch to help with any nausea. It was a miraculous change!

that's a good point, I remember now I was asked if I had surgeries before and any issue with anesthesia. I did not remember any problems from a prior anesthesia experience . I keep a journal now of my recovery.