Published on 12, July, 2020
I had to complete a pre op triage questionnaire recently. I'm still agonising over the impossible questions.Have I "recently" had such and such? Define "recently" please. I can't know what you mean by "recent". I can only tell you when I had it. Only you can say whether that's recent by your definition. But there was no room for comment.
Am I able to participate in strenuous exercise - e.g. football, swimming? Well, yes, but it all depends on definition of strenuous. How long? How hard? How do you even measure that? How am I supposed to answer something that vague? I said "yes" but I'm clearly no athlete. I get out of breath.Do I have a learning disability? Well that's an easy one. That's a no. BUT ASD was given as one of the examples, which I almost certainly do have. This is rubbish. I had to answer "no", because the question was specifically about learning disability. But now I'm worried that my autism will not be considered, when it really has to be because of sensory processing differences.
This all matters, because it could seriously affect my care in a life threatening situation. FFS! This is horrible.
Sadly, pre-operative questionnaires aren't designed with neurodivergent people in mind (I've also completed my fair share of them, recently).
There's still time to also complete and provide them the "My Health Passport" in addition, which we discussed in your earlier thread a few weeks ago:
My Health Passport
Getting the most important / key information recorded on it could still be very helpful to them - and so also to you. Even if you also prefer to work on it more afterwards, in order to ensure that everything is covered. (In any case, it's something that we should review regularly, as our sensitivities and difficulties can vary over time).