Surgery of any kind can be a major event that has an immediate impact on how you live your life — even if it is just for a short period of time.
Often, surgery will render you unable to take care of yourself for a few days or weeks, leaving you to have to depend on your family and friends, many of whom may not have the time or skills required to aid you.
In-home post-surgery care is a great option to get the help you need after an operation and ensure that all of your needs are met. We will lay out four major ways that in-home care can help your post-surgery recovery go much smoother.
1. Personal Care
Activities of daily living are ordinary tasks that individuals perform during the course of their everyday lives.
Tasks such as dressing, showering, and using the restroom can become extremely difficult after surgery. Depending on family and friends to be available to help with these tasks is not always realistic, but at the same time, the surgery may have left you unable to perform them without help.
Having someone there to assist you ensures that you are still able to perform all of the necessary tasks and properly recover from surgery. In-home care brings a caregiver to your home to help you with these tasks, such as:
- Toileting
- Showering or bathing
- Brushing teeth
- Personal grooming (brushing or combing hair, assisting with skin care regimen and personal appearance regimen)
- Dressing
- Getting in and out of bed or a sitting position
- Medication reminders
2. Meal Preparation
Getting the right nutrition is critical for healing after surgery, but it can be difficult to have the energy to cook a balanced meal. With an in-home caregiver, all aspects of meal preparation are taken care of.
At Bluebird, we help create a meal plan that meets your nutrition and dietary needs, along with assisting with cooking the meals and cleaning up afterward.
Consuming consistent, healthy meals can significantly help the healing process after surgery, so ensuring that you get these meals is very important.
3. Driving
Driving can be difficult or even impossible after surgery depending on what was operated on. If you are getting out-patient surgery, you will need someone to drive you to the appointment and home once it’s done.
Family or friends may not be available to help with this due to work or prior obligations, so it is essential to have a plan on how to get to and from the appointment.
Even after your surgery, you may not be ready to drive due to surgery-related pain or immobility. Caregivers will give you the freedom to still be able to travel to where you need to be, such as follow-up appointments or spending time with loved ones.
4. Comfort and Healing
Almost everyone would rather be in their own home while recovering from surgery rather than laying in a hospital. In your home, you are much more comfortable and could potentially heal faster.
Having an in-home caregiver will also ensure that you are not going back to living normal activities too soon and jeopardizing your recovery. Knowing your limits and having a supportive individual present that can let you know if you are pushing your recovery too quickly will help keep your recovery on track and avoid setbacks.
The Bluebird staff is available to help with all of the non-medical facets of post-surgery recovery. Contact us today for more information on how we can help you safely and comfortably recover from surgery at home.