Preparing for Surgery
Preparing for surgery is a crucial phase in your journey to health. It is also one that you, as the patient, have most control over. Although the hospital should provide you with sufficient information on how to prepare this is rarely done in any meaningful way. Yet studies have consistently shown that the better a patient is prepared for surgery the faster the healing process and the better the outcome. So in the spirit of self-empowerment let's get going. What Does Preparing For Surgery Involve? Well quite a lot of things. Consider this list: - - Pre-operative assessment – done to make sure you are fit enough for the procedure. This is normally carried out on an out-patient basis. This is when the hospital should go into detail about post-operative care and give you advice about physiotherapy.
- Understanding the procedure - do you really know what you are about to have done? How it will be done? Have you considered alternatives? Is this really what you want or are you just going along with what the surgeon recommends? You need to buy into the process of surgery and not be just a passive passenger.
- Mentally preparing for surgery - its natural to be concerned about any type of surgery and a hip replacement is major surgery. You’re going to be exchanging part of your lovely body with a man-made object. That can take some getting use to.
- Preparing your home - this is definitely a biggie. You’re going to need to spend time and, perhaps, money to make sure you have the right environment to recover in. We will look at eating, washing, sleeping, dressing, safety in the house, using the stairs and much, much more.
- Getting Help After Surgery - you can’t do this alone. Who is able and willing to help you? Are they the right people for the task? How can you fill gaps.
- Equipment and Furniture - you will need to get things like a long handled reacher, a commode and crutches as well as ensuring your furniture is at the right height.
- Pre-surgery exercises - getting your leg ready for surgery makes the operation easier and the recovery quicker.
- Hip Precautions - after the hip surgery you will have some restrictions placed on what you can and can't do with your new hip. It is essential that you fully understand what these are.
.... and that’s just the things I can think of off the top of my head! Don’t be alarmed – help is at hand and I’m here to slowly walk you through everything you need to do. When I’ve finished writing all the pages I’ll put together a "Preparing for Surgery" checklist which will be free for you to download.
What Next?
Learn more about: -
Getting Help After Surgery
Mentally Preparing for Surgery
Hip Precautions
Back from Preparing for Surgery to the Home Page
Were you Ready?
Did you forget something trivial or important? Did something not go according to plan? What was most helpful? What did you regret doing or not doing?
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