When you leave the hospital after weight loss surgery, the care of your wound, appetite, and health falls to you. This may seem overwhelming, but if you follow a few simple rules, you will heal and thrive well.
The Drive Home
- Some people must travel great lengths to reach their doctor. If your trip home from the doctor’s takes over an hour, it’s important that you take steps to stimulate your circulation. Get out of the car every hour and walk around briefly.
- If your incision is uncomfortable, you may splint it with a pillow. Make sure that you still wear your seatbelt.
At Home
- Your circulation is still a concern once you’ve arrived home, so be sure to walk around your home or yard every two hours during the day and early evening. In between walks, while seated, make sure you keep your legs in an elevated position. Avoid crossing your legs.
- Make special arrangements to help you avoid unnecessary difficulties like stairs and potential slip-and-falls in bathrooms without safety rails. You may need to arrange a sleeping area downstairs for the first few days after surgery.
- You’ll be sent home with an incentive spirometer to help regulate your breathing. Make sure that you use it at least four times each day, or according to your doctor’s orders.
- Monitor your post-operative pain levels. Measure your pain with a scale that ranges from 1 to 10, with 1 representing barely any pain and 10 representing pain so severe you want to go to the hospital. Once your pain level reaches 5, you should take your pain medication in order to head your pain off at the pass and avoid suffering too much. If you experience shoulder pain or pain at the site of your gastric band port, a walk might help reduce it.
- Keep your incision point, drainage tube, and (for gastric band patients) port clean and dry according to your doctor’s instructions.
- Make sure you follow all the guidelines of the post-surgery diet. Focus on high-protein, low-starch foods, eat slowly, chew well, and do not drink when you eat. Remember to drink 40 to 64 ounces of fluids in between meals.
- Take all medications and vitamins as directed. If you have special problems or irritations, you can take Gas X, Milk of Magnesia, Tylenol and Motrin (for headaches, and not frequently), Pepto-Bismol, and Prilosec. For sinus problems, you can take Robitussin expectorant. No substitutions for these over-the-counter medications should be made unless your doctor recommends it.