The average American has at least seven surgeries in their lifetime if they live to the age of eighty. These surgeries can be anything from getting your tonsils removed to open-heart surgery, and yet we’re never fully prepared for what comes after. After surgery, the healing process is a long list of ups and downs that can be hard to go through alone. If you want to stay healthy and promote good healing after your surgery, these are the three things you should focus on.
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Get In A Lot of Fluids
When you’re healing from surgery, one of the most important things to promote scar healing and bouncing back is to keep heavily hydrated. Being hydrated increases your skin’s elasticity, makes it easy for your body to heal itself and ensures it’ll take longer for you to get creaky or sore from sitting still.
Being heavily hydrated after surgery can also ensure that things go smoothly while you’re in the bathroom as well. This is because passing food through your body can be more difficult while you’re on pain medication and after using a general anesthetic, meaning that many patients find themselves constipated after surgery.
Drink a lot of water, find protein drinks you can stomach, and try to find a workaround to getting up constantly or staying constipated.
Don’t Overexert Yourself or Work Too Soon
Many people try to brag about how quickly they bounce back after surgery. They’ll say they only used pain medication for a couple of days, or they’ll refuse to use it at all. But, then, these same patients will go to work their main job and will find themselves struggling to stay conscious or do a job that was once simple for them.
Give yourself at least a couple of weeks off of work if it’s an invasive surgery, and try to find someone you trust who can sit with you and help as you heal. This can be an incredibly vulnerable position to be in, so if you ask for someone’s help, ensure that they’re someone you can trust who understands the importance of what you’re asking of them.
Take time off, be good to yourself, and fully heal before you try to get back to work.
Stock Up On Supplies to Ease Healing
Before you go into surgery, you should try to stock up on supplies so that you don’t have to do much moving around or shopping while you’re healing. The most important part of this is creating at least a couple of weeks of meals that will be readily available. This could mean getting protein bars for breakfasts, sandwich supplies for lunches, and pre-making and freezing meals for dinners.
It would be best if you also stocked up on medical supplies that will help you. Silicone tape for scars is an awesome thing to have on hand, and you should also keep things like puppy pads and gauze to catch leaks, so they don’t stain your clothes or sheets. Although stockpiling items like this can feel overboard, being prepared now saves you a lot of literal pain later on.
