Originally Posted by
Dysco
I found my post on recovery...
Dysco's advice for life after major surgery or injury.
1) Make a plan. Write yourself a note about how you're feeling and where you want to be at the end of your mess. Reread it when you get discouraged. Write more. Keep them all.
2) Take care of the person (or people) that is taking care of you. This is critical. Order flowers for your wife before surgery to be delivered afterwards, make plans with other people (friends or a CNA service) to give your caretaker a break or whatever you think will work to make life easier for them. Whatever you're feeling physically, they're feeling emotionally. (It's a bad idea to schedule a "party" that they will have to prepare for and clean up after.)
3) Hospitals aren't hotels. The harder you work in them, the less time you'll have to spend there. Get out of bed to pee, walk around the unit as much as they'll let you, and work to let the nurses and CNAs know you want to do as much as you can on your own. Eat your meals. Healing takes calories. If a nurse sucks, tell the patient rep. If a nurse was awesome, tell the patient rep. They can't improve things if they don't know about them, nor can they reward positive outcomes.
4) Make a list of questions for your doc. In the 5 minutes you might see him or her a day, you may not be able to remember your questions. The doc is usually in a hurry- they are busy people. Don't bog the conversation down with stories about irrelevant stuff. If you stick to business they will actually spend more time with you.
5) Write everything down that the doc or physical therapist tells you to do to get better. Keep an accordion folder to keep your instructions straight. Follow the instructions. Make sure to make the difference between a limit and a benchmark. A limit is "don't walk more than 1/4 mile a day." A Benchmark is "I want you to be walking at least a mile a day." Follow the limits, double the benchmarks.
6) Stop when it hurts bad. Pain is going to change you. There is good pain, bad pain, and pain that's always going to be there. Figure out when to stop before the bad pain, ignore the others.
7) Come up with a plan to get off your pain meds. When you're prescribed a med for pain, ask not only about the side-effects, but about how to get off of them. Some drugs require you to taper them off, some you can stop cold-turkey. If you don't taper some drugs, you will experience withdrawal symptoms- It'll cost you at least 2 days of recovery. If you find yourself increasing the number of pain pills you take, call the doctor. If you have to take pain meds for longer than two months, ask your insurance to pay for a pshrink or a program to follow. Dropping the meds altogether may make you a difficult person to live with. Continuing to take pain meds after you don't need them WILL make you a difficult person to live with.
8.) Physical therapy is the most important part of your life. Rest is the second most important thing. If work makes either one of those too hard, take leave or use more leave. You can work part time on FMLA if the doctor orders it. Tell them what you need specifically and they'll make it happen. PT office visits are for learning how to do things on your own, ask lots of questions, tell the therapist exactly what you want to be able to do, then double the time you spent there at the gym or at home. A slow 2 hour PT session at the gym was really effective for me. Sometimes I went twice a day.
9) PT doesn't stop. I was in better physical shape 4 months after my surgery than I am now because I stopped working out all together. (The difference now is that I'm much stronger and have better balance) Stay with the gym routine and build up. PT is forever. You'll feel better about yourself and you'll probably end up in better shape than you were in before. I regret not sticking with it and it'll be harder to get back into it now that I've decided to go back.
10) The bike is last. The bike you had going in may not be the best bike for you coming out. Start small, start slow. Build up gradually. It sucks but it's better.
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