Fussy Surgeon

I am on long term steroids and my surgeon was petrified of them as they can allow easy infection and slow down healing. He wanted me down to zero when I would have been in enormous pain and probably clobbered my adrenal glands. In the end we negotiated on 5mg. In fact I seemed to heal pretty fast, very little pain, no swelling and no bruising. I think he was pretty brave operating on me though. 

I would feel really safe with your surgeon! I'd much rather have a fussy surgeon than one who is lazy and I got some sort of nasty infection!  From what I understand, if you get an infection in your new joint, they have to do surgery again.  Yuck!

My surgeon would not do surgery if I was sick with anything (including any virus like a cold), had any other open cuts or burns or wounds, or if I had any sort of rash.  The night before surgery and the morning of I had to take a "special surgery shower" before going to the hospital where you wash with a surgical soap and you have to let it stand on your body for ten minutes before washing off.  Then you get in freshly laundered clothes and head to the hospital.  At the hospital they even swabbed my nose with something like betadine to sanitize any bacteria that could be in there.  And of course you can't eat or drink after midnight the night before (I was eyeing the nurses outside my room with their morning coffee quite jealously before surgery).

Be glad your surgeon is that careful!

Hospital infection control procedures vary a lot, but yours sounds very thorough, which is a good thing. You don't want to pass on a germ into your bloodstream, or anyone else's, nor do you want anyone else's germs in your bloodstream.

Rest assured, it's a good thing.