FAQs
General Surgery FAQs
Welcome to Boulder Vein Center’s general surgery FAQs page! We have compiled the common surgery questions asked by patients, along with our answers, to provide the information you may be searching for. If you are unable to locate the information you are seeking, kindly get in touch with us.
Common Questions About Procedures, Recovery, and Care
Surgery is a branch of medicine that involves operations and procedures carried out by highly skilled medical professionals and surgical teams to treat diseases or fix damaged body parts. To heal the damaged or diseased area, surgeons employ a variety of methods or approaches to reach it.
Board-certified surgeons like Dr. Richard Fox and Dr. Akin Beckley have demonstrated proficiency in a surgical specialty by passing rigorous educational, training, and certification exams. To be eligible for board certification, they have completed at least five years of training in an approved medical residency program and graduated from an accredited medical school. They have also passed a written and oral exam assessing their judgment and decision-making abilities.
The cost of surgery varies significantly based on the treatment and the location, and is influenced by numerous factors. These include payments for the use of instruments and equipment, pharmaceuticals, pathology (lab) fees, hospital room fees, and fees for surgeons and other specialists.
Your insurance coverage and whether the hospital and physicians treating you are covered by your plan will determine how much the procedure will cost. The average cost of the procedure you will require can often be found out from your insurance provider.
Several insurance providers, hospitals, and surgical facilities offer estimator tools to help patients estimate the cost of their surgery.
An estimate can also be obtained from the surgical or hospital billing department. However, if there are unforeseen results during your surgery or an unplanned extended hospital stay, the final cost may not be the same as the estimated amount.
At Boulder Vein Center, you can call our office and our friendly staff can help you get a cost estimate of your upcoming surgery.
Dr. Fox or Dr. Beckley can give you an estimated duration of your procedure, which depends on a number of factors. These include your general health, whether the procedure is routine or complex, existing complications, whether the physician must switch techniques (from minimally invasive to an open surgery), to name a few.
Dr. Fox or Dr. Beckley will discuss your need for the surgery and the best course of action for treating your health issue when you meet. They will go over the outcome or outcomes you should expect as well as the alternatives, including ones that don’t involve surgery. Some procedures are not urgent, while others may require an immediate procedure.
There are various methods for carrying out certain procedures. An open surgery or a minimally invasive approach (laparoscopy) can be used to perform a procedure. In a minimally invasive procedure, a scope and other tools are placed inside your body through tiny surgical incisions. In certain cases, your surgeon may begin your procedure with a minimally invasive technique but will need to switch to an open surgery.
Dr. Fox or Dr. Beckley will discuss with you alternatives to surgery that address your health issue. Medication is one good example of a surgery alternative. The goal is to reduce your discomfort, treat the illness, and enhance your general health. Other treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, or immunotherapy may also be advised as treatment to some tumors.
At Boulder Vein Center, we will do our best to make you comfortable during a surgery. We will discuss with you the different options for anesthesia to reduce your discomfort. There are four options: general anesthesia, sedation, spinal anesthesia, and epidural anesthesia.
Our surgeon may give you some medications, including antibiotics, pain medication, blood thinner, and/or stool softeners. You may go about your everyday business and take walks around your house, but lifting should be limited (a gallon of milk at most). There are instances where you can return to a normal healthy diet post-surgery, but most of the time, you will have to begin with soft foods.
