These are very good questions, but I am afraid I don’t know the answers. I’m guessing that each hospital will have slightly different ways of doing things - and probably each department within that hospital.
I’ve had several general anaesthetics (dental work in my youth) but nothing since.
I was knocked sideways by the wisdom tooth op. V slow recovery, bad reaction to the anaesthetic. But that was 35 years ago, so my experience is far from current!
However, knowing my body as well as I do, i know how I would handle things - assuming that I had the liberty to make these decisions...
I would attempt to prep for the op by making sure I was in ketosis, running on ketones, and my glycogen stores were run down. That would be very low carb or fasting in the days leading up to the op.
This would minimise the way my stress hormones and liver would play silly ******* with my blood glucose.
I would be making strong protests if they wanted to give me glucose, and I would request NOT to be given it frequently, and ask for my request to be written in my notes. Obviously, discussing the liklihood of it during the pre-op.
And I would be asking my poor long suffering, but incredibly kind, husband to bring in food parcels (if I was stuck in overnight). Cold meat, salad bags, nuts, double cream, peanut butter (and a spoon). Actually cold meat and cheese would probably be enough for a one night stay.
If they wanted me to ‘eat something before you can go home’ then I would be pulling something like a kind bar, or a peanut 9bar out of my bag, and swerving the NHS tea, biccie and sandwich option. There would be several of them in my bag to cover any delays in discharge.
For myself, I have two problems. The first is that I sorted my own blood glucose control (and RH) without an official diagnosis. So what are the odds of hospital staff taking any notice of me hopping up and down saying ‘I’ve got RH’ if it isn’t recorded in my hospital or doctor’s notes? I do have a medicalert bracelet saying ‘reactive hypoglycaemic, do NOT treat hypos with glucose’. I also have plenty of blood glucose records to show RH hypers and hypos. But who would take any notice to that?
Oh, and I am very sensitive to caffeine. It sends my blood pressure high, and my blood glucose wangy. Some anaesthetics have caffeine in them. So I would be asking the anaesthetist to be aware of this, and hopefully discuss options...
Obviously, a lot of that may be completely irrelevant to you, but i hope some of it helps.
I hope your procedure goes well!