The best way to recover post-surgically is to begin planning your recovery prior to the surgical event. Think about the tasks you do daily basis. See what can be done before the start of your recovery. Can you pay bills in advance or set up automatic payments? Is it possible to have your paycheck or disability check automatically deposited? Do you need to make arrangements for pets while you are in the hospital and the immediate post-operative period? Consider stopping your mail for a short while during your hospital stay and for the first several days you are home. Get the house ready; pick up throw rugs (due to risk of falls), stock refrigerators and freezers with nutritious food and beverages, and have friends and relatives on standby to help via your return from the hospital. Having help at home after surgery to help with tasks of everyday living from bring the mail in from the mailbox to answering the doorbell, are all items friends and family can do. Having these things in place will give you peace of mind and help to keep you from overdoing it when you come home from the hospital. Overdoing it is a major cause of setbacks when trying to recover post operatively.
In a less than ideal world, there is no time for planning for post-surgical recovery. Surgery is thrust upon you, like the knife of the surgeon that operates. Surgery takes a toll on you physically and emotionally. If you didn’t have time to put plans into place prior to surgery or feel unready for discharge, don’t panic. Speak out; tell the nurse and physician. Hospitals have discharge planners that can talk with your doctors, nurses, physical and occupational therapists and work with the nursing team at the insurance company (yes, there is a nursing team on your side at the insurance company), to help plan for a safe and smooth transition home. As a former nurse, insurance discharge planner, and former patient trust that my past experiences can help you. No insurance company wants to risk a lawsuit from premature discharged if a safe discharge plan is not place. If you are a Medicare patient, and don’t feel ready for discharge you can appeal a discharge order. Your hospital is required by law to help you do this. Usually, buys at least one extra day if not more. Having a safe discharge plan is the first key to post surgical recovery at home.
The second key to post-surgical recovery is while still at the hospital, make certain that there is a plan in place to have your post-surgical prescriptions picked up or delivered to your home. The trip home from the hospital is not the time for you to be picking up these medications (meds). If you haven’t planned for this, inform the hospital staff so they can help make arrangements for medications to be delivered or have enlist someone to do this task for you. If your medication schedule is going to be complicated, your pharmacy can package pills in week-at-a-time pill dispensers, which are labeled appropriately dispensing times.
Once Home:
1) Keep necessary items close at hand. If you have a cellular phone, keep it with you. Worst case scenario you will need to call the doctor if problems occur once you are home. Meds need to in reach. Excessive moment, over-stretching muscles and not taking medications properly can slow your healing progress. Transporting items on a bag attached to a walker, using a basket, or bag can keep needed items together. Suggested items to keep together besides the cell phone are meds, discharge instructions, the Day-Timer for contacts and appointment schedules, bottle of water with which to take your meds, and controls for TV or DVD players.
2) Rest and get adequate sleep. You need restorative REM (rapid eye movement sleep) for your body to heal. Some of the medications you are on may cause you to feel tired and surgery itself is taxing to the body. It is amazing how the little things can take so much out of you, post-surgery. So sleep.
3) Take your medications as ordered and at the correct times. With pain medications this is especially true. If pain medications are delayed, your pain will be worse and harder to control. If your pain is worse than it was when you were in the hospital, this may be a sign you are overactive or that something is amiss. Call your doctor if this occurs.
4) Be careful when getting out of bed not to twist your body, this is especially true if you had trunk or back surgery. To get out of bed, roll onto your side moving your body as an entire unit (as if you are a log). Slide your legs of the bed while pushing off the bed with your upper body as you push yourself into a sitting position. Twisting, turning sharply or jerking motions can hurt or pull your incision.
5) Continue with the coughing and deep breathing exercises, if you were instructed to do so. Prior to coughing take a pillow to help support the surgical area by putting pressure above and below the surgical wound, if the incision is on the trunk of the body. Medical staffs refer to this as splinting the incision. All patients can benefit from taking in slow deep breaths. Holding the breath for several seconds and then blowing it out. Deep breathing helps to calm, relax, and for those that had general anesthesia helps clear the anesthetic out of the system.
6) Make certain to follow all the discharge instructions, including the ones about pumping your ankles or performing ankle circles. People tend to move less after surgery. These exercises help prevent blood clots and thus a return trip to the hospital. Make sure you do all the prescribed exercises; they were prescribed to help speed your recovery. Not doing them only hurts you.
7) Recovery takes time. It can be a long hard lonely journey. Having a laptop at hand for chatting with friends, shopping online, reading e-mail, playing games or other forms of entertainment can pass the time. Joining online support groups for those recovering from surgery may prove helpful. Reaching out to others may lift your spirits. Improving your mood helps to speed recovery as well.
