On the day of your oesophageal cancer surgery

Before the operation

The ward staff will show you round the ward and show you to your bed. Your nurse will check your blood pressure, pulse and breathing rate.

Your nurse will go through a series of questions on a checklist to make sure you are ready for surgery. They will also ask these questions in the anaesthetic room. They ask you to:

• tell them your name and date of birth

• tell them when you last had something to eat and drink 

• change into a hospital gown

• put on a pair of surgical stockings

• take off any jewellery (except for a wedding ring)

• take off any make up, including nail varnish

• remove contact lenses if you have them

• put on 2 hospital identification bands, usually one on each wrist – if you have any allergies you will have an extra wristband so that your healthcare team are aware

If you have false teeth you can usually keep them in until you get to the anaesthetic room.

Preparing the area

For some types of surgery, your nurse asks if they can remove the hair around the operation area. This is to help prevent an infection. They might remove the hair on the ward before you go for your operation. Or when you’re in the operating theatre.

Medicine to relax

Your nurse might give you a tablet or an injection to help you relax. This will be an hour or so before you go to the operating theatre. This makes your mouth feel dry. But you can rinse your mouth with water to keep it moist. 

Your nurse and a porter take you to theatre on a trolley if you’ve had this medicine. You can walk down to the theatre if you haven't had any.

Having an anaesthetic

You have an anaesthetic so that you can’t feel anything during the operation. You have this in the anaesthetic room or the operating theatre.

All the doctors and nurses wear theatre gowns, hats and masks. This reduces your chance of getting an infection.

Before your operation your anaesthetist might put a small tube through the skin of your back. It goes into the fluid around your spinal cord. They can attach a pump to this tube to give you pain medicines during and after the operation.

The ​anaesthetist​ puts a small tube (cannula) into a vein in your arm. You have any fluids and medicines you need through the cannula including the general anaesthetic. This sends you into a deep sleep. When you wake up, the operation will be over.

When you wake up from surgery

After the operation, you usually wake up in the intensive care unit. You usually move back to the ward within a few days.

Read more about what to expect after oesophageal cancer surgery