6 Helpful Tips to Speed Up Recovery After Surgery

Photo by Brian Patrick Tagalog on Unsplash

How good are you at following doctors’ orders? When you’re leaving the hospital after any type of surgery there may be a long list of dos and don’ts that accompany the bag of medication you carry with you. Do you diligently follow those tips? The truth is that even after a successful operation, it’s what you do at home that determines how well you’ll recover in the months ahead. Your actions after surgery matter!

Now, don’t get too stressed; you can speed up your recovery just by doing the right things. There are times when a surgery may result in chronic pain, in which case you can seek professional assistance such as those at Seattle Pain Relief. Along with this and your surgeon’s suggestions, why not incorporate some of our tips below? You won’t believe how simple some of them are.

What’s On Your Plate?

 
What you give your body will directly impact your recovery, so pick healthy ingredients that help you heal. Add probiotics and protein to your diet and avoid salt and sports drinks. How you eat is also important. Eat smaller meals so you can manage bloating more effectively and it may prevent feeling nauseated.

Rest

 
Resting is the best thing you can do for your body, because it mends itself while you’re asleep. If you feel excessively tired, listen to your body and stay in bed. This may be necessary as much as six weeks after surgery, because your body experiences an operation as trauma and needs to recover. 

Move Correctly

 
You need to sleep, but you also need to ensure there’s enough circulation throughout your body. Gentle stretching and regular walks outside will be ideal from about one day after having surgery. You shouldn’t cause your heart rate to increase too much, but you need that blood pumping and it will help your lymph nodes do their work. Eventually you need to get back to some level of fitness. As an added benefit, you may experience less bloating and constipation if you can get moving soon after the surgery.

Consider Your Clothes

 
This tip is for comfort, but also for health purposes. Avoid tight fitting clothes and items that have elastic bands near where your incision is. Prevent irritating your skin, adding too much pressure or accidentally hurting your body in an additional capacity.

Stop the Sneeze

 
If you have a cut across your stomach or your chest, you can imagine that coughing and sneezing won’t help the situation. Occurrences like these could damage something around the scar. If you can’t stop the sneeze or cough - or if coughing is essential to clear your lungs - apply gentle pressure to the incision by placing a pillow over it and pressing towards your body.

Take Care of Your Incision

 
Consider how you tend to your incision, even if the doctor does it every few days. It’s usually better to shower than to bathe, so the area doesn’t get soaked. When cleaning a wound, don’t over clean with products and don’t pick at the scabs.

Endnote

 
These small aspects of your recovery can have an immense impact. Be strict with yourself, because in the long run you’ll be grateful.

This is a guest blog entry.