Preparing to have surgery

In this post I list some key questions to ask yourself if you are preparing for surgery. This is based on my personal experience as, two weeks ago as I type this, I had to undergo a bit of surgery myself.

I thought it may be useful to share here my experience of how I prepared for it - in case it helps anyone else facing surgery.

I found burying myself in the practicalities really helped me feel less anxious about the surgery itself, so listed below are some questions you need to think about when preparing for your own surgery.

Hospital:

• How will you get to the hospital on the day?
• Who will be contacted about you when the operation is complete?
• How long is your stay in hospital likely to be?
• What entertainment will you take?  I packed magazines, books and my iPad, but I found my ability to concentrate on any one thing was really poor, so I couldn't focus on a book. Instead I flicked through the magazines, but mainly streamed catch up TV to pass the time.
• How will you get back home?
• How will you cope when back at home?

Home:

• What is your expected recovery time and what support will you need whilst recovering?
• If you are on your own think about preparing food for the freezer in the run up to your surgery so you have quick and easy meal options when recovering.
• How mobile will you be when you return home?
• Try and have a plan about what you want to be near you when you get home to your bed, nothing worse than being immobile and not being able to find what you need.
• Who will be around to help you should you need it?

Work:

• Make sure your boss knows the situation and hopefully they are supportive of the time you need off to recover.
• Ensure your handover is fully comprehensive.
• the last thing you need is calls from work with queries whilst you're trying to heal.

Post surgery:

A few days after my surgery I started to feel randomly close to tears and quite anxious. I had no reason to feel that way and my physical recovery was going really well. I just couldn't understand it.  However thanks to google I soon learned about how often people can get post surgery blues. For some it becomes really bad and needs medical support, but for me just knowing that the strange emotions were just part of the post surgery recovery made me feel so much better. I wasn't losing it - it was just my body adjusting to everything it had been through coupled with everything that my mind had been racing over for weeks before the surgery happened.

These are the key takeaways from my own experience, but I am sure everyone is different just as every surgery is different. The trick is to try and be as prepared as you can be, but know there will always be something that surprises you - so make sure you have a support network you can call upon for help should you need it.

Hope you find this a little useful - any questions then please comment below.