Surgery is more often than not a life-saving necessity, but that doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods once you’re wheeled out of the operating room. You have a long road of recovery ahead. Part of that recovery is simply resting—yes—but to truly recovery from any sort of surgery you also need to invest in physical therapy. The goal is to build your body back up from its weakened state.
If you’re expecting your first surgery soon, then plan ahead. Knowing what you need to do and what you can do to improve your post-recovery period can help you stay focussed, and committed. Done right, you can maximize how much strength, flexibility, and mobility you can recover after your surgery.
Here is a guide to getting back on your feet post-surgery.
Start with HBOT
A great treatment to get after your therapy is HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen therapy). You can get HBOT therapy in NYC, for example, and use it to fuel up your body so it can recover more effectively. With this treatment option you are placed in a pressurized tank. The air pressure is then increased slightly. This increase in air pressure actually makes it easier for your lungs to draw in oxygen, which then fuels the rest of your cells. With that extra oxygen your body can work to recover from wounds (including those from surgery) faster.
As a bonus, this treatment also works to reduce inflammation, and can even help improve your immune system, two factors that can also help you through the post-surgery recovery process.
Improve Your Diet
You are what you eat, so it’s important to improve your diet post-surgery so that your system has all the nutrients and vitamins that it needs to build back your body. This applies in all instances, even amputations. It takes energy to heal over a stump, for example, or to heal internal incisions, or anything else. That’s why you’ll want to choose high-protein foods, dark green leafy vegetables, fish, bone broths, and foods like yoghurt for probiotics.
Keep Your Wounds Clean and Dry
You must invest the time to properly clean your wound, dry it, and redress it in a sterile bandage. Being lax with this can result in an infection, which can very well kill you if it’s not caught in time. Be vigilant about keeping the wound dry, and try to keep pressure off of it at all times.
Follow Your Body’s Signals
Listen to your body. You will be able to feel problems even if you can’t see them. If sitting a certain way makes it feel painful, or like there’s pressure, change positions. You need to avoid inadvertently pulling on your recovering system and causing a tear because you tried to stretch too far, too soon.
Slowly Start Building Back Your Routine
After the first six weeks you can start working on building back your routine. Start with very, very low impact exercises, like a short walk or even yoga (again, listen to your body and don’t try to follow the instructor 100%). So long as there isn’t any pain, pulls, or pressure, you are good to continue. For best results, of course, consider going for professional physical therapy (if it’s not already part of your recovery regimen).
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