if you have to go to OR

If one has to have surgical procedure done what does it mean to be ready for it? I, medical doctor, mind you, have just underwent surgery. I am an anesthesiologist. So I do know some things about it. First of all i picked the surgeon, an orthopad i work with all the time, so i knew he was good, really good, then i asked one of my patners to do anesthesia for me. Things went very smooth with no problems, and I am recovering well, thank you very much. And then I started getting bills! Still not a lot of suprize there, i knew they were coming. But sitting at home it got me thinking: to prepare me - a healthy 40 year old with no medical problems, active, athletic (runnig 15-20 miles a week, playing ice hockey - that how I got hurt in the first place), my primary care doctor along with my surgeon ordered bunch of blood tests, Chest X-Ray, and even ECG, I did know prior to surgery - i didn't need any of that to "prepare" a patient like me to the type of surgery i was about to have, All these test ate most of my didactible, and they all were normal! What did they expect? Why would Chest X-Ray be abnormal in a healthy 40 year old with no symptoms or complains. As an anesthesiologist i constantly see this happen - surgeons, primary care docs order absolutely useless tests and studies to "prepare" their patients for surgeries. The problem is not that they are bad docs, but rather they don't know, it's not their field! It's mine! I do know! I was trained to do just that. The current system does nor allow patients to meet their anesthesiologist right before the surgery, so we are stuck to what other doctors order and most of the time it's tests that are not necessary, or sometimes the ones that would be useful are missing. We delay, postpone or cancel surgeries altogether. We did work hard to develop policies, to educate doctors and nurses, but although policies are useful they are not a panacea, medicine is not math, sometimes 2+2 is not 4! I saw some crazy numbers recently - about$2billions is wasted in this country on the unnecessary presurgical testing! Plus, let's say, one of the tests comes back abnormal, now what do you do? More tests! More time, more money, and possibly more complications. Surgery is not an indication for routine blood tests, X-Rays, ECGs, CTs, colonoscopies, etc..My advice - contact your anesthesiologist before your procedure, express your concerns ask for his/her opinion.