Patient Resource Center · Oklahoma City
Everything you need. Before and after.
One page for the whole arc of your surgery at the Oklahoma City campus — how to get here, who drives you home, what to bring, how to prepare, and exactly what to watch for while you heal. When any instruction here differs from what your surgical team tells you directly, their instructions win.
The logistics
Getting here, and getting home.
The OKC campus
Your driver & your first 24 hours
What to bring
How the day flows
Address and phone match this campus’s Visit & Contact page — confirmed 2026-08-20. Tulsa patients: the flagship keeps its own resource page at Tulsa Surgical Arts — Patient Resources.
Before surgery
Preparation, precisely.
The three cards below — fasting windows, the night-before checklist, and the morning-of checklist — are clinical instructions. They are written, and they release the moment your surgeon signs them. Until then, your pre-operative packet and the surgical team’s direct instructions are your source of truth.
Fasting before anesthesia (NPO)
Anesthesia is safest on an empty stomach. The windows below are the standard fasting pattern published by the American Society of Anesthesiologists — your surgical team confirms your exact times when your surgery is scheduled, and their times are the ones you follow.
- Clear liquids — water, black coffee, plain tea, pulp-free juice, clear electrolyte drinks — typically permitted until 2 hours before your scheduled anesthesia time.
- A light meal — for example toast with a clear liquid — or nonhuman milk typically ends 6 hours before.
- A full meal, and especially fried or fatty food, typically ends 8 hours before.
- Alcohol — none in the window your team sets before surgery, and never the night before.
- Gum, mints, hard candy and tobacco all count — nothing by mouth once your window closes.
Morning medications: take only what your surgical team explicitly told you to take, with a small sip of water — never decide this on your own. And if you slip — if anything passes your lips after your cutoff — tell the team honestly when you arrive. Arriving with food in your stomach can force a delay or cancellation; hiding it can be dangerous.
Fasting before anesthesia (NPO) — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
The night before — checklist
- Shower and wash with the cleanser your team directed, and go to bed with clean, bare skin — no lotions, oils or creams afterward.
- Remove nail polish and artificial nails as directed; remove all jewelry and piercings and leave them home.
- Set out loose, front-opening clothing and slip-on shoes for the morning.
- Confirm your adult driver — and the responsible adult staying with you for your first 24 hours.
- Fill your prescriptions ahead of time and stage them where your caregiver can find them.
- Build your recovery station: extra pillows, water within reach, phone charger at the bedside.
- Stop eating and drinking at exactly the times the team confirmed — see the fasting card.
- No alcohol, and no supplement or medication your team has not explicitly approved.
- Set two alarms. Aim for a full night’s sleep.
The night before — checklist — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
The morning of surgery — checklist
- Nothing to eat or drink except what your team explicitly approved within your fasting windows.
- Medications: only the ones the team told you to take, with a small sip of water.
- Nothing on your skin — no makeup, moisturizer, deodorant, powder or fragrance.
- Wear the loose, front-opening clothes you set out; glasses instead of contact lenses, with a case.
- Bring photo ID, your paperwork and your medication list; leave valuables home.
- Arrive at your confirmed time; your driver stays reachable by phone the entire day.
- Tell the team about any change since your pre-op visit — a new cough or fever, a cold sore, broken skin near the surgical area, or anything you ate or drank.
The morning of surgery — checklist — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
After surgery
Healing, without guesswork.
Drain care, showering rules, laser aftercare and the honest recovery arcs — each card releases after surgeon sign-off. Your written discharge instructions govern until then, and after.
Drain management — the worksheet
Some procedures use a closed-suction drain — a soft tube ending in a squeeze bulb — to carry healing fluid away from the surgical site. Managed calmly, it is a five-minute routine, not a crisis.
- Empty and measure: wash your hands; open the bulb’s plug; pour the fluid into a measuring cup; write down the milliliters, the time, and which drain it came from. Then squeeze the bulb flat and close the plug while compressed — that re-establishes the suction that makes it work.
- When to empty: whenever the bulb is about half full, and at minimum every morning and every evening — even if there is little fluid.
- Stripping the tubing: only if your surgeon instructed you to. Steady the tube where it exits the skin with one hand, and with the other pinch and slide down the tubing toward the bulb to move any clots along.
- Keep it secured: pin or clip the bulb to clothing below the drain site — never let it dangle by the tube.
- Removal: drains typically come out in the office once output falls below a threshold your surgeon sets — commonly in the range of 25–30 mL per drain per 24 hours on consecutive days. Your surgeon confirms your exact threshold and performs every removal. Never remove a drain yourself.
- Call the practice if: output turns suddenly bright red or sharply increases, the fluid turns cloudy or foul-smelling, the tube slips or falls out, or the site becomes red, hot or increasingly painful.
Swipe the log sideways on a phone →
| Date | Drain # | AM output (mL) | PM output (mL) | 24-hr total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Print this log or photograph each day’s row — and bring the record to every follow-up. The numbers you write here are what tell your surgeon when the drain is ready to come out.
Drain management worksheet & log — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
Showering, yes. Submerging, no.
- Showering is usually cleared early — your team gives you your exact shower date, and drains change the rules, so follow your discharge sheet. When cleared: lukewarm water, let it run over the incisions rather than scrubbing them, mild soap around — not on — healing lines, and pat dry with a clean towel.
- No submerging until your surgeon clears it. That means bathtubs, hot tubs, swimming pools, lakes, rivers and oceans — all of them. Soaking softens a healing incision, and standing or shared water carries real infection risk into it.
- This is one of the most commonly broken rules in all of surgical recovery — and one of the least worth breaking. When in doubt, ask before you soak.
Showering & water rules — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
After facial laser treatment — skin protection
- Sun avoidance is rule one. Freshly treated skin burns and pigments with remarkable ease. While the surface is raw or pink, stay out of direct sun entirely — shade, brimmed hats, and errands scheduled around peak hours.
- Sunscreen, once cleared: after the surface has healed and your team clears sunscreen, a broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher goes on every morning — cloudy days included — and gets reapplied through the day when you are outdoors.
- Cleansing: lukewarm water and the mild cleanser your team recommends, applied with fingertips only. No scrubbing, no washcloths, no exfoliants. Pat dry; moisturize per your written plan.
- Hands off: do not pick, peel or rub flaking skin — it lifts on its own schedule, and forcing it trades days of healing for months of pigment trouble.
- Actives wait: retinoids, acids, scrubs and makeup return only when your team clears them.
- Expect pinkness. New skin reads pink for weeks and fades over weeks to months — that is the treatment working, not a problem.
Laser aftercare — sun & skin protection — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
Recovery, honestly — the general arcs
Every recovery is individual, and your surgeon’s plan for you outranks every line below. But patients deserve honest expectations, so here are the general arcs by procedure family, drawn from this practice’s own procedure records.
- Facelift & neck: bruising and swelling peak in days 1–3; sutures come out in stages through weeks 1–2; most patients feel socially presentable around weeks 2–3, often with light makeup; strenuous exercise near week 6.
- Rhinoplasty: the external splint comes off around one week, and many patients return to desk work after splint removal; visible bruising typically resolves by weeks 2–3; strenuous and contact-risk activity near week 6. Nothing rests on the bridge — glasses are taped or supported off the nose.
- Breast surgery (augmentation, lift): soreness peaks in days 1–3; desk work in one to two weeks; lower-body exercise weeks 3–4; most patients fully cleared around week 6 as implants settle and swelling declines.
- Tummy tuck & mommy makeover: walking begins the day of surgery, slightly bent at the waist; drains, when used, come out as output falls; standing fully upright and desk work around two weeks; light cardio weeks 3–6; core work and full clearance around weeks 6–8. Help at home with children and lifting is essential early.
- Liposuction: soreness like an intense workout; desk work within three to five days; light exercise around two weeks; full exercise by weeks 4–6, with the compression garment worn throughout per instruction.
- Brazilian butt lift: no direct sitting early — an off-loading cushion from day 4 through week 2, per instruction; desk work around days 10–14; a gradual return to normal sitting through week 6; lower-body training around weeks 6–8.
Arcs summarized from the practice’s procedure records (facelift, rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, mastopexy-augmentation, tummy tuck, mommy makeover, liposuction, Brazilian butt lift, post-weight-loss) as of 2026-08-20. General expectation-setting only — your written plan governs.
Recovery timelines by procedure family — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
Plain-language guides
Every procedure, explained simply.
The estate’s downloadable plain-language guides — written at or below an 8th-grade reading level, released after surgeon sign-off. Browse the guides →
When to call
Know the signals. Never hesitate.
In any emergency, call 911 first. For everything else on this page: during business hours, call 405-751-0042. The cards below — the specific warning signs, the after-hours line, and the nearest emergency department — release after surgeon sign-off.
Warning signs — act on these
Call 911 — do not drive, do not wait: chest pain or pressure, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fainting, or sudden confusion or one-sided weakness.
Call the practice immediately, day or night, for:
- Fever of 101.5°F (38.6°C) or higher
- Pain, swelling or warmth in one calf
- Redness spreading outward from an incision, or an incision that becomes hot and increasingly painful
- Bleeding that soaks dressings and does not stop with gentle, steady pressure
- Pain your prescribed plan does not control
- Persistent vomiting, or inability to keep liquids down
- Incision edges opening, or drainage that turns cloudy or foul
- Drain output that suddenly turns bright red or sharply increases
When in doubt, call. No one at this practice will ever treat your call as an overreaction — the call you almost didn’t make is the one we most want.
Warning signs — when to call, when to call 911 — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
After hours
A fellowship-trained surgeon is on call for this practice’s surgical patients around the clock. After business hours, call the on-call line: PENDING_OWNER. Leave your name, your procedure and your surgeon — the on-call surgeon calls you back.
After-hours on-call line — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
Nearest emergency department — OKC campus
If you cannot reach us and it cannot wait — go. This is a full, 24-hour hospital emergency department, minutes from the campus.
- Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City — Emergency Department — 4300 W Memorial Rd, Oklahoma City, OK 73120 · open 24/7 · a certified Level III Trauma Center, roughly five minutes from the Saint Andrew’s Drive campus.
Pending verification As of 2026-08-20: Mercy Hospital OKC emergency department address, 24/7 status and Level III trauma certification verified against mercy.net. Owner confirms preferred ED routing before sign-off.
Nearest emergency department — In clinical review — released after surgeon sign-off.
Having surgery at the Tulsa villa instead? Tulsa logistics and emergency information live on the Tulsa resource page.