"Day case surgery"

Anything else?

My concern is regarding the length of time a patient is allowed to recover following anaesthetic. I had a Mastectomy and axilliary clearance and to be quite truthful I was a bit concerned about my length of stay post operative. Like most people when you are listed as a day case patient you want to go home that day but if you were unwell then you would be prepares to stay. My experience is that I was late going to theatre for my operation ( approx 3pm ) so therefore I did not return to the ward until about 17 35. I was given coffee and toast. Which was very nice. I rested on the bed about 90 mins and then I was asked if I would like to get up. I agreed thinking I was going to sit in a chair for a while but the nurse brought me my clothes to put on. My husband helped with these and I had no sooner got them on then the nurse came and gave me my discharge information and then told me I could go home. At that point I had been up approx 5 mins I had a drain in and as far as I am concerned I had fairly major surgery. I had. No information about the care of the drain, no one checked my dressing on. Discharge and no one checked my blood pressure which to me are all very important. I had a wound check and 1 blood pressure reading carried out when I came back from theatre and that was it!! The main reason why I am writing in is to do with the length of stay post operative. I think that some procedures take more out of a patient than others and that we are all different in how we recover. Maybe the guidlines for certain procedures need to be addressed. In this instance when I was discharged I was very "shakey " but I managed to make it to the car with the help of my family but some people may not be as lucky.