The pre operative period is all about preparation and as soon as you know that you are to undergo surgery it pays to make some changes which will optimise your recovery.
Here are some ideas of what you can prepare: your lifestyle, your breathing, your post op exercise plan to name a few.
Your Lifestyle
Clear your diary.
Remember this is a time of restoration and recovery and it will be inhibited if you raise your cortisol levels by worrying about jobs you have to do and appointments you have to keep. If part of your responsibility is as a carer to children or relatives, then you need to make sure that you have help from others for at least a couple of weeks. Lifting will need to be avoided in the early weeks.
Prepare your Food.
Prepare good wholesome, nutritious food for your recovery and freeze it. You may wish to make soup for the first few days when your appetite may be suppressed but you still need good nutrition. Also consider that what you eat will help or hinder your bowels so try and prepare to eat high fibre foods.
Sleep.
Sleep is paramount to healing and getting into a good routine pre-op will optimise recovery. Set yourself a cut off of blue light an hour before you want to fall asleep. In this time you could have a bath (and continue once you’ve been cleared to get your wounds wet) or read a book. Optimal temperature is 18 degrees for a bedroom and this can really affect your quality of sleep. You may want to trial a diffuser with lavender oil to help with relaxation.
Your Breathing
How Are You Breathing?
Whilst it seems pretty obvious that we need to breathe, the way we breathe makes a huge difference to our health. Ideally we should breathe 85% into our lower lungs and 15% into our upper lungs. Due to poor posture, lack of movement and stress we can end up with this being suboptimal. As mentioned earlier, breathing well helps lower stress levels. If you have pain, your breath may be shallower as you do not want to cause discomfort as your diaphragm descends. Try to breathe as well as you can and use pain relief if necessary.
Move Your Upper Back
Moving your upper back (thoracic spine) is a way of improving your breathing. Start a daily mobility routine before your operation to ensure optimal flexibility post operatively.
Post Operative Pain
Many people who have laparoscopic surgery have shoulder pain which peaks at around 24 hours post op. The right shoulder appears to be more commonly affected than the left. This is due to irritation of the diaphragm from the air that is used in the abdomen to give the surgeon a better view. Surgery occurs in a head down, feet up position which adds to the problem.
Ways to relieve post operative wind include:
chewing gum
rocking in a rocking chair
drinking peppermint tea or drinking peppermint oil
abdominal massage
movement
In an ideal world every person undergoing surgery would have more information about prehabilitation and preparing for surgery. Many of the women that I see in clinic prior to surgery find the personalised information and recovery plan has given the confidence going into their operation.
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