seekayembee

Do you have a speaking valve?

In addition to Lollipop's answer, they probably told OP not to eat or drink anything when he got the call. It's always safer to not eat before having surgery, but in situations like organs becoming available, or emergency surgery, the surgery comes first, regardless of when the patient last ate.

Realistically by the time OP goes under general anaesthetic, if the doctor told him not to eat anything during the phone call, his stomach should be relatively empty. Basically, you're told not to eat when the surgery is planned because it's the ideal condition to be in pre-surgery, but when it's not planned, the anaethetists will be aware of it.

I'm not sure if it's done pre-op or not, but where I work (in an ICU), when we have a patient with a tube in their nose (or sometimes mouth) going down into their stomach and we want to try and empty their stomach, we can attach that tube to suction and empty it that way. I don't think it'd be as effective as fasting, but it may be something the anaesthetists do. I'm just guessing though!

I hope that helps explain it a bit :)

Is it an acute admissions unit or more like a rehab unit? When I was a nursing student I did prac on an acute geripsych ward which was pretty crazy. The combination of psychosis and dementia gets confusing.