What to Stop Taking Before Surgery — and a Phone Call for Every Deadline
Blood thinners about a week out (on the surgeon's exact date), NSAIDs around three days, fasting from midnight, the antimicrobial shower, only the approved pills on surgery morning, then out the door on time. CareCall phones your parent at each step and texts you the moment it's confirmed. No app, no checklist lost on the fridge.
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When you're the one holding the pre-op folder
Your mom's hip replacement is booked for the 22nd. The pre-admission clinic sent her home with a folder: stop the Eliquis on a date the surgeon circled, stop the ibuprofen she takes for her back three days out, nothing to eat after midnight the night before, shower with a special antiseptic soap, take only the two approved pills on surgery morning with a small sip of water, and be at the hospital for 7 AM. Six instructions, spread across five different days — and most of them printed in small type on a handout she skimmed once in the car and filed somewhere in the kitchen.
You're the one making sure it all happens, possibly from another city. You can call about the blood thinner on the right day — if you remember which day the surgeon said. But will you also remember the NSAID cut-off on a random Tuesday? The evening shower? Whether she ate breakfast out of forty years of habit before you were even awake?
These misses are exactly why operations get cancelled on the morning of surgery: a blood thinner taken too close to the operation, a coffee with cream at 6 AM, an aspirin nobody thought counted. A same-day cancellation isn't a small setback — in Canada it usually means going back into the queue and waiting months for a new date, with the pain or the heart condition unchanged the whole time. Getting the pre-op week right, step by step, is the single cheapest insurance there is.
First, the rule that matters more than any schedule
Never stop a blood thinner — or any prescription — without your surgeon's explicit instruction. This page will not tell you when to stop anything, because nobody except the surgical team can. The right stop-date depends on which drug it is (warfarin, Eliquis, Xarelto and Plavix all clear the body at different speeds), why it was prescribed (atrial fibrillation, a stent, a mechanical valve), kidney function, and how much bleeding the specific operation involves. Some patients aren't told to stop at all; some are switched to injections that bridge the gap. Those are medical decisions.
What CareCall does is the other half of the job: once your surgeon has set the dates, it makes sure they actually happen — with a friendly phone call on the right morning and a text to you when it's confirmed. It's the same system our founder built when his 67-year-old dad, living alone after a heart attack and two strokes, needed four eye-drop bottles managed on four different tapering schedules — you can read that story in the post-cataract eye drop schedule guide. A pre-op week is the same problem: simple steps, unforgiving timing.
The surgery pre-op checklist, call by call
This is CareCall's Surgery Pre-Op pack — six phone calls scheduled automatically off the surgery date. You enter the date once; the calls place themselves across the final week. Each call reads the step out loud in plain language, repeats it if asked, and waits for a one-button confirmation.
| When | Call time | What the call reminds them to do |
|---|---|---|
| One week before surgery | ||
| 7 days before | 9:00 AM | If the surgeon said to stop blood thinners (warfarin, Eliquis, Xarelto and others), today is typically the day. The call itself says it plainly: always confirm the exact stop date with your surgeon — never stop a blood thinner without explicit medical approval. |
| Three days before surgery | ||
| 3 days before | 9:00 AM | If the surgeon instructed it, stop NSAIDs today — ibuprofen, Advil, Aleve, aspirin. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is usually still OK for pain. Confirm with the surgical team. |
| The evening before surgery | ||
| Evening before | 6:00 PM | Fasting starts at midnight tonight — no food after that. Clear liquids may be allowed until a few hours before surgery; confirm with the surgical team. The early call means there's still time for a proper dinner. |
| Evening before | 8:00 PM | Shower with the antimicrobial soap if the surgeon provided one. Lay out comfortable, loose clothing for tomorrow, and pack the hospital bag: health card, ID, and a current medication list. |
| The morning of surgery | ||
| Surgery day | 6:00 AM | Take only the medications the surgeon approved (often blood pressure pills), with a small sip of water. Otherwise nothing by mouth. Confirm the approved list with the surgical team. |
| Surgery day | 7:00 AM | Time to head to the hospital. Bring the health card, ID, medication list, and someone to drive home. No jewelry, makeup, contact lenses, or nail polish. |
The days and times above are editable defaults, not medical advice. Stop-dates genuinely vary: some blood thinners are held for two days, some for seven, some not at all; some hospitals allow clear fluids until 6 AM, others allow nothing after midnight; some patients get bridging injections instead of a simple stop. Always follow your doctor's instructions — your surgeon's or pre-admission clinic's written sheet is the only schedule that counts. Take that sheet, set each call to match it, and never stop or change any medication without your surgical team's explicit approval. CareCall handles the reminder logistics; your care team sets the plan.
Having a knee or hip replaced? There's a joint-specific version
For joint replacements, most surgical programs add an extra infection-prevention step: a chlorhexidine (CHG) antiseptic skin wash the night before and a second wash on surgery morning, plus sleeping on clean sheets in between. CareCall's Joint Replacement Pre-Op pack builds those in:
| When | Call time | What the call reminds them to do |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days before | 9:00 AM | If the surgeon said to stop blood thinners, today is often the day — always confirm the exact stop date; never stop without the surgeon's approval. |
| 3 days before | 9:00 AM | If instructed, stop NSAIDs (ibuprofen, Advil, Aleve, aspirin) today. Acetaminophen is usually OK. Confirm with the surgical team. |
| Evening before | 8:00 PM | Shower with the antiseptic (CHG) soap if provided, sleep on clean sheets, and start fasting at midnight. Pack the bag: health card, ID, medication list, loose clothing. |
| Surgery day | 6:00 AM | Do the second antiseptic skin wash if instructed, and take only surgeon-approved medications with a small sip of water. No jewelry, makeup, lotion, or nail polish. |
| Surgery day | 7:00 AM | Head to the hospital — health card, ID, medication list, and a driver. Leave valuables at home. |
The same timing caveat applies: your surgical program's instructions replace these defaults, always. And the pre-op pack is only half the story for a joint — the weeks after the operation are where reminders earn their keep. The knee replacement recovery call schedule covers six weeks of pain medication, icing, and PT exercises three times a day, and the hip replacement recovery schedule adds the daily DVT-prevention aspirin and the walking program. If the operation is cardiac — a bypass or a valve — the cardiac recovery reminder schedule takes over from the first morning home, with cardiac meds, spirometer breathing exercises, and sternal-precaution nudges.
How CareCall handles the pre-op week
At each scheduled time, CareCall rings your parent's regular phone — landline or cell — and a warm, unhurried voice reads the step exactly as written: "Just a friendly reminder... if your surgeon told you to stop blood thinners, today is typically the day. Always confirm the exact stop date with your surgeon." Then it offers simple keypad choices. No menus, no passwords, nothing to install or learn.
"I'm all set"
The step is done. You get a quiet confirmation text within seconds — the blood thinner call was answered and acknowledged, and you didn't have to interrupt your meeting.
"I need a ride"
Essential on surgery morning — nobody drives themselves home from an operation. You're texted right away so a driver gets arranged before it's a crisis.
"Something's wrong"
They're confused about an instruction, or something's off. Every caregiver on the account gets an urgent SMS immediately — so the question goes to the surgeon's office today, not in the pre-op bay.
"Call me back later"
They pick 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours — and CareCall calls back. Pressing 9 replays the whole message from the start.
What happens when nobody picks up
- Automatic retry. If the call isn't answered, CareCall tries again 30 minutes later — and it can tell the difference between voicemail, no answer, and an accidental hang-up.
- Escalation to family. If two calls in a row go unanswered, you get an SMS alert. A missed fasting reminder at 6 PM becomes a quick call from you at 6:35 — not a cancelled operation at 7 the next morning.
- A record you can trust. Every response is logged, and a daily summary lands in your inbox each evening. When the pre-admission nurse asks "did she stop the Xarelto on the 15th?", you'll answer from a record, not a guess.
Setup takes a few minutes: add your parent, pick the Surgery Pre-Op or Joint Replacement Pre-Op pack, enter the surgery date, and all the calls schedule themselves. Then take your surgeon's instruction sheet and adjust any call to match — different stop-date, different arrival time, an extra step the clinic added. Each call fires once on its day and retires itself. The first thing your parent experiences is a friendly phone call — a technology they've trusted their whole life.
Every same-day cancellation is a lost OR slot. CareCall runs pre-op call programs for surgical and endoscopy clinics — the colonoscopy prep reminder schedule works the same way — with confirmations your staff can see. Learn more on our clinics page.
Surgery pre-op reminders — common questions
When do you stop taking blood thinners before surgery?
There is no universal date — it depends on which medication (warfarin, Eliquis, Xarelto, Plavix and others clear the body at different speeds), why it was prescribed, kidney function, and the bleeding risk of the specific operation. Many surgeons ask for roughly a week, which is why CareCall's default call lands 7 days out — but that call is a prompt to act on your surgeon's written instruction, not medical advice. Never stop a blood thinner without your surgeon's explicit approval, and always confirm the exact stop date at the pre-admission appointment.
Can you take Tylenol or ibuprofen before surgery?
Ibuprofen, Advil, Aleve, naproxen and aspirin are NSAIDs that affect clotting, and surgical teams commonly ask patients to stop them about three days before surgery — that is what the three-days-out call reminds them to do, if their surgeon instructed it. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is usually still allowed for pain, but confirm both with your surgical team, because instructions vary by procedure and by patient.
What does 'nothing after midnight' actually mean?
It means no food after midnight the night before surgery. Some hospitals allow clear liquids until a few hours before the operation; others want nothing at all. CareCall's 6 PM call the evening before flags the midnight cut-off while there is still time for a proper dinner, and the 6 AM call on surgery morning reminds them to take only surgeon-approved medications with a small sip of water. Your hospital's letter has the exact rules — follow it.
What happens if my parent doesn't answer a pre-op reminder call?
CareCall automatically retries 30 minutes later, and it can tell the difference between voicemail, no answer, and an accidental hang-up. If two calls in a row go unanswered, every caregiver on the account gets an SMS alert so someone can phone directly — a missed stop-date call becomes a two-minute family phone call instead of a cancelled operation.
Our surgeon's instructions are different from this schedule. Can the calls be changed?
Yes — and they should be. The times and dates on this page are the pack's editable defaults. If your surgeon says stop the blood thinner five days out instead of seven, or allows clear fluids until 6 AM, you can move, reword, or delete any call from the caregiver portal in under a minute. Your surgeon's instructions always win; CareCall just makes sure they actually happen on the right day.
Does the free trial cover the whole pre-op week?
Yes. The pre-op packs span seven days and the free trial lasts ten, so a single surgery prep can cost nothing. Set it up once the surgery date is confirmed, enter the date, and every call schedules itself. If you keep CareCall for recovery reminders afterward, plans start at $9.99 CAD per month. Cancel anytime.