How to Prepare One Day Before (MWHC)

The bullets below are a summary of what you’ll need the day before surgery to be ready. If you have any questions before surgery, feel free to call your care team.

The day before surgery:

• Do not shave your chest and legs the week before, or the day before, your procedure.
• You’ll need to take two showers with soap and water, and chlorhexidine.
• Take the first shower the night before your surgery, and the second the morning before coming to the hospital.
• The night before you come to the hospital, put Mupirocin ointment into each nostril as instructed.
• You need to have a bowel movement the day before surgery.
• Do not eat or drink anything after midnight.
• If you are taking blood thinner medications such as anticoagulants or antiplatelets, check with your doctor to see if and when you should stop taking these.

Be sure to follow any other presurgery guidelines your doctor has given you. The better prepared you are, the more smoothly your hospital stay and recovery will go.