Preparing for Recovery, rehabilitation, recuperation, recovery after surgery

Problems & Solutions

Timing & Techniques

Hip Replacement Surgery

Recovery

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Preparing for Recovery

Preparing for recovery before your operation is a crucial step in your rehabilitation.

Although almost everyone looks forward to returning home after a stay in hospital it can also be a daunting time. You will probably be concerned about how you are going to manage and you are right to do so. Preparing for recovery is a crucial step - without adequate planning for your convalescence life is going to be tough.

The key to a successful recovery is forward planning and adequate support.

If you live on your own you need to start thinking about who can help you. If you live with family or friends ask yourself if they are really the right person for the job. I suggest you start your preparations by reading "Getting Help After Surgery" which is full of ideas and advice about how to get the support you need during the rehabilitation phase.

Once that’s done, and you know who is available (along with their strengths and weaknesses), you can start preparing for recovery in finer detail. You will need to think about: -

What alterations do you need to make to your furniture and home?
What sort of equipment can you get to help make life easier and safer?
How you will get fed? Shopping, cooking and washing up.
How you will stay clean? You, your clothes and your home.
Where you will exercise – physiotherapy is essential to your recovery?
How you will stay entertained?
How you will get your medication?
How will you get to your hospital appointments?
And general safety issues such as how to tackle the stairs?

The best tip I can give you to help you in preparing for recovery is to watch what you do at every moment of the day and work out how you will do that after the operation. You will notice things that you have never thought of before and in noticing them now you can sort out a solution before its too late.

Case study: Janey lives alone in a flat on the 2nd floor of a converted house. Before her operation Janey became actively involved in preparing for her own recovery. She monitored her everyday activities and soon realised she wouldn’t want to be running up and down stairs to let visitors in. What should she do? Her first idea was to have sufficient keys cut for everyone that was likely to call around but this was going to be expensive and there was no way she could get all the keys delivered to the people in time. Instead she bought a roll of string and lowered the keys out of the window! Simple but effective!

What next?
I'll be adding links to each of the topics listed in the next few days.

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