Crohn's Disease Before Surgery: Pre-Op List, History Sheet and Surgeon Questions

Updated 3 October 2026

When surgery is on the calendar, the weeks before it fill up fast: tests, calls, forms, work, family. People with Crohn's disease often prepare while still having symptoms, and details slip. This guide covers a short pre-op log, one sheet that holds your history and medicines, the questions worth asking the surgeon and the anesthesia team, the logistics of the days around the operation and what to write down for the first week back. It is general information. Everything about your own operation and your own preparation belongs to your surgical team, whose instructions come first.

Why a pre-op log helps

If you are heading into an operation, your surgeon knows why it was recommended. What they may not know is how you have been in the weeks since you last saw them.

A pre-op log records that stretch: pain, bowel entries, energy and anything new. It does not need to be complete. Two or three lines a day for the weeks before the date is enough.

The log has two jobs. It gives the team a baseline, so that recovery can be compared with how you were before. And it gives you something to read from when you are asked "how have you been?" in a pre-op appointment where your mind may go blank.

Start the log when the date is set, or today if the date is close. Put the operation date at the top and count the days down on the page, so you can see how long you have left.

In Crohn's Journey, the Daily check-in covers physical symptoms, emotional state, nutrition, sleep, exercise, medicines and outside factors on one date, which makes a ready-made baseline for the weeks before an operation.

What to record before the operation

Keep the entries short enough to write on a tired day.

Daily lines before a Crohn's operation

Crohn's Journey (part of Health Journey Labs) keeps three short lines each day before the operation:

• Pain from 0 to 10 and where, in a few words.
• Bowels: stool form on the Bristol Scale and the number of trips, if your team asked you to track them, or a few words if not.
• Energy in a word, and anything the day limited.

Any new symptom, with the date it began: a fever, a new pain, a skin or joint change. MedlinePlus advises calling your surgeon right away if you get a cold, the flu, a fever or another illness in the few days before surgery, since the operation may need to be rescheduled. Write the call in the log, with the date and what you were told.

Appointments and tests, with dates: the pre-op visit, the anesthesia call, blood work, imaging.

Eating and drinking only as the team asked you to record it. Instructions for what to eat or drink before the operation come from your surgical team, and you follow theirs.

After two weeks, write a three-line summary at the top: the typical day, the worst day and what changed.

Bring the log to the pre-op visit. Ten lines of dated facts give your surgeon more than an hour of recall.

The Stool Tracker (Bristol Scale) in Crohn's Journey records stool form and urgency or bathroom load, and the Flare Tracker flags a day clearly worse than a usual week with onset, intensity and a short note.

The history and medicine sheet

Put all of that on one sheet.

Crohn's items for the history sheet

For Crohn's disease, Crohn's Journey adds these items to the sheet:

• Your diagnosis date, where the disease is active as you were told, and the clinician who manages it.
• Earlier operations, in date order, with the hospital and whether there was a stoma.
• Complications you remember from earlier operations or anesthesia.
• Recent results with dates: blood work, imaging, endoscopy.

For medicines, MedlinePlus advises bringing a list to every provider that includes medicines bought without a prescription and medicines you do not take every day, with the dose and how often you take them, plus vitamins, supplements and natural medicines.

Copy each entry as prescribed. Do not change anything yourself before an operation. The same page notes that your surgeon will say which medicines to take on the day of surgery, so write that question down and write the answer in the team's words.

Mark the sheet with the date, and bring copies to every pre-op appointment.

In Crohn's Journey, My Meds keeps medicine names, timing and medication entries, including biologics, steroids and other options you actually use, and My Labs stores the dates of results.

Questions for the surgeon and the anesthesia team

The American College of Surgeons publishes questions to ask before having an operation. Some of them matter more when you live with Crohn's disease.

Among them: what are the risks, benefits and possible complications of the operation, and will your health history and current medications mean they are different for you? What are your anesthesia options, and which is best considering your health history, prescription medications and vitamins or herbs? Will you need any blood tests or other tests before surgery? How will you be monitored during the operation? Will you need drains or other tubes when you leave the hospital? What can you expect for your recovery in terms of treatment, medication, diet and home care?

Crohn's questions to add before surgery

Crohn's Journey adds the Crohn's-specific questions that apply to you:

• Is a stoma possible, and what would be explained to me beforehand?
• How will my gastroenterology team be told?
• What should I do about my current medicines on the day?
• Who do I call if symptoms change?

Write the questions in order of importance. Leave room under each for the answer, and write it in the clinician's words.

Take someone with you if you can, or ask whether the visit can be recorded or the answers sent in writing. A second listener often remembers what the first one missed.

Ask how long the stay is expected to be and what the team will want from you afterwards, such as a follow-up date. Write both.

If an answer is unclear, ask again and say what you understood. If you still do not understand, ask who can explain it.

Ask whether it is worth reviewing the medicine list together, and write the answer.

The My Care Team tracker in Crohn's Journey holds your clinicians with short visit notes for prep, during the visit and afterward, so the questions and the answers stay on the same page.

Tiredness and the weeks before

Waiting for surgery is tiring in its own way, and Crohn's disease adds its own tiredness. The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation reports that fatigue affects nearly 80% of IBD patients with active disease and 50% of patients in clinical remission.

For the log, write energy in a word and what the day held. Note how long tiredness lasted after an activity.

Count the better days each week. A count shows direction.

Mention it at the pre-op visit if tiredness is increasing or is beyond what you can manage. Several causes can overlap, and the team can help separate them.

Write down what you are leaving undone because of the tiredness, so that you can pass it to someone else or move it to after the operation.

In Crohn's Journey, the Daily check-in keeps energy, sleep and pain on the same date, so the weeks before the operation can be read as a single run.

Logistics for the days around the operation

The practical details are easy to lose. Put them on one page.

What goes on the logistics page

The logistics page in Crohn's Journey holds seven items:

• The date, the hospital, the arrival time and the entrance, as given.
• Who is taking you and who is collecting you, with the phone number you will give to the staff.
• The contact for the surgical team and the out-of-hours number.
• The dates of the pre-op visit, the anesthesia call and any test, and when you will hear results.
• The leave dates for work, the people you told and any forms to be completed.
• Who looks after children, pets or anyone you care for, and for how long.
• What the hospital said to bring, as listed by them.

Put the page where someone else can find it, and tell them where it is.

If any detail is unclear, ask the surgical team's office. They would rather be asked than guess.

Write a short note for the person who will be with you: your allergies, your medicines list, the name of your surgeon and the number of your gastroenterology clinic. If you cannot speak for yourself on the day, they can.

Pack what the hospital listed, and add your phone charger, the sheets and a pen. Put the question list where you will see it when you come round.

The Weekly Goals tracker in Crohn's Journey holds one small aim for the week, such as returning the leave form, and marks whether it held.

Mood and worry before surgery

Worry is common before an operation. Record it as you would any symptom.

Add a word for mood to the daily line. Write what you did and who you saw.

Write the questions that worry you, even small ones, and take them to the pre-op visit.

Tell a clinician if worry grows, keeps you up or starts to shape decisions. It is a normal topic for a pre-op visit.

Tell one person at home how you are feeling, using the log if it helps. How to explain Crohn's to family who cannot see it offers words for that conversation.

Write the thing you are most afraid of, in a line, and take it to the pre-op visit. A fear that is named can be answered, and a clinician hears this often.

Note what helped on a worried day, such as a call, a walk or a task finished, so you can find it again.

If you are thinking about hurting yourself, contact your local emergency number first and then a crisis line where you live (988 is an example in the United States). Let someone near you know.

Mood goes into the Daily check-in in Crohn's Journey with the physical entries, and the Daily Journal takes free-text or voice notes for worries that need a place to land.

The pre-op visit page

Pre-op visits can be short, and several clinicians may see you. One page serves all of them.

What goes on the pre-op visit page

Crohn's Journey gathers one page for the pre-op visit:

• The history and medicine sheet.
• A summary of the log: the typical day, the worst day, any new symptom.
• Results with dates.
• The question list for the surgeon and the anesthesia team.
• The logistics page.

Tell each clinician at the start about your Crohn's disease, your earlier operations and any problem with anesthesia.

Write the answers as you go, and read back the main points before you leave.

Ask what to do if symptoms change before the date, and who to call. Write the answer in their words.

The guide on recent surgery with Crohn's disease covers the weeks after, and what to bring to a 15-minute Crohn's visit lists the wider packet.

Before the visit, the Doctor Report in Crohn's Journey exports a one-page summary of dates, symptoms and function from what you logged.

How Crohn's Journey can help

A folder with a few sheets will carry you through this. Should you want symptoms, medicines, results and visit notes to share dates over months, an app is worth a look, and the Crohn's apps guide sets out several to try.

Crohn's Journey is a personal Crohn's disease tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. Before an operation, it holds the daily baseline, medicines and questions in one place, so you walk in with dates in hand. Over months, the history shows how you were before and after, which gives each clinician dates to review. Below is what you can use and how each part helps.

• Stool Tracker (Bristol Scale) — Stool form on the Bristol Scale, urgency or bathroom load and short marks, read with pain, meals and energy.
• Food Tracker — Meal or drink lines, read with pain, urgency, energy, stool and sleep.
• Flare Tracker — A flag for a day clearly worse than the usual week, with onset, intensity and a short note, read against the weeks around it to tell a one-off rise from a repeating pattern.
• Daily check-in — A guided daily pass covering physical symptoms, emotional state, nutrition, sleep, exercise, medicines and outside factors.
• Daily Journal — Free-text or voice notes on what the day limited, bathroom maps, partner talks, visit debriefs and leftover guilt after you canceled.
• Weight Tracker — Scale readings or body notes, including weigh-ins and nutrition notes watched with a clinician, read with stool, meals, energy and sleep.
• My Meds — Medicine names, timing and medication entries, including biologics, steroids and other options you actually use, read with stool weeks, pain, sleep and the rest of the tracked history.
• My Labs — Result dates for blood counts, stool tests, calprotectin, imaging and other tests, read with symptoms and function.
• Weekly Goals — One small aim for the week and a mark for whether it held.
• Learn — Short education topics on flares, pacing, bathroom load and visit prep, to read with your own logged weeks.
• AI companions — Clara for general chat plus specialist companions covering knowledge, fitness, nutrition and relationships, all of which already see your logged history, useful for visit wording, a calm partner script, a soft rain-check line or a listening ear after a hard bathroom day.
• My Assessments — Structured check-ins beyond daily scores, plus life and social context from onboarding.
• My Care Team — Your clinicians and short visit notes, for visit prep, notes during the visit and review afterward, including a visit that centers on stool count while function gets less room.
• Doctor Report — A one-page summary exported from your logged history, covering dates, stool and meal context, symptoms and how you functioned.
• Period Tracker — Start and stop dates, flow, and how heavy or light bleeding felt, read with pain, stool, energy and everything else logged.

Everything you log builds one history, and insights get stronger as it grows. Custom symptoms let you add your own labels.

Sources

• NIDDK — Treatment for Crohn's Disease
• MedlinePlus — Getting yourself healthy before surgery
• American College of Surgeons — Questions to Ask before Having an Operation
• Crohn's & Colitis Foundation — Fatigue
• NIDDK — Diagnosis of Crohn's Disease

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