How much help did you need after surgery?

[littlebird]

I'm very concerned about the level of care I'll need for the week or two after surgery (after I'm home from the hospital--apparently I'll be in the intensive care unit for one day, then sent home).

Did you need someone to literally help feed you? Or just bring drinks/food to you from the kitchen? Did you need help walking? Did you need help with things like doing laundry or taking care of pets? For how long?

My surgery is in less than a week. My parents are coming from out-of-state for the surgery and will be staying with me for a couple of days, and they've been asking me what exactly they would be doing to help me. I don't know what to tell them other than "whatever I might need, I'm not sure how I'm going to feel." I would appreciate insight into other peoples' experiences and how long help was needed.

[jaime]

Everybody is different, but for me the big thing was having someone there to fetch me things when I was comfortable in bed or on the couch. I was able to get up and prepare my own meals, walk around the house, use the washroom and simple things, but it was hard to get comfortable when I sat/lied down, and when I was, I didn't want to get back up.

It would probably be helpful to have them take care of your pets, too. Looking and bending down are a bit difficult for about a week.

I don't know if their dates are set in stone, but in my experience with two surgeries under my belt, days 3 and 4 were the worst and then after that, things got a lot better.

[EWUgal15]

Jaime is right, days 3 and 4 are the worst. I only really needed help walking the day of surgery and it was after the car ride home. Mostly because I was still bleeding, but not heavily enough to be a problem. So walking from the car to the house was hard to manage because I was still heavily medicated, drooling like a saint bernard, and bleeding.

Speaking from my experience, it was really helpful to have my mom there for medications. I was on two medications post op that were on a schedule once the first dose was taken. My mom was awesome at getting them drawn up in advance and getting them down the hatch, especially in the middle of the night. She helped take care of the cats too, which I didn't realize I needed until she was doing it. With my boyfriend having to go back to work at 2 days post op, having my mom was a god send because I wasn't sitting at home alone. The day my boyfriend went back to work, my mom organized a prison break and let me drive to my storage unit. I wasn't needing pain meds at that point and it was a short enough trip that I didn't start feeling drained until we got home.

[jaime]

I wanted to chime again and say that if you are having a hard time imagining what recovery will be like, I came to the conclusion that it's like a really bad hangover that lasts about a week, but add in swelling and an inability to move your mouth at all. But it's similar...you'll feel like crap and not want to move around too much, but it's definitely manageable and you know it'll be over soon.

[littlebird]

LOL! Jaime, thanks for making me laugh with your hangover analogy--I needed that!

EWUgal15, thanks for the response, that's amazing that you were off pain meds so soon and I can only hope it goes that way for me, too!

[EWUgal15]

EWUgal15, thanks for the response, that's amazing that you were off pain meds so soon and I can only hope it goes that way for me, too!

I was lower jaw only...and mostly numb. I really only took them as needed and that wasn't very often. My pain meds weren't really even that strong because my surgeon knew I'd have a lot of numbness. In fact, I think I still have some of my liquid pain meds. You know, in case I ever have a nasty headache and don't feel like swallowing regular pills.

[HiKitty]

I had my SARPE 4 weeks ago on Tuesday and had my husband take the rest of the week off because I was so unsure of what to expect. I was surprised that I was up and about very soon afterwards ( I definitely needed someone that first day). I had bleeding out of my nose and mouth immediately after surgery (I had my wisdoms out as well), some swelling for the first week or two, but no bruising.