#post op

if anyone has any suggestions or things that helped them after top surgery please, please leave a reply on this post. try and keep it relatively affordable but also useful! it can be literally anything, just something that would help him out, or give him something to do, or even something entertaining! literally anything.

(Tips in blue are things I thought of while healing, things in white are said by doctors but expanded on, anything in purple is when I’m adding to the a point after I wrote it, ex, “this happened when I did this”)

- When you cough/sneeze/blow your nose, hold a pillow to your chest, the counter pressure will prevent straining on the surgical site.

- They use a breathing tube so your throat WILL be hurting like a bitch. Swallowing anything hurts but it does get better, just be gentle, no big gulps of water. If you have good cough drops (I have medicated mucinex cough drops with me) that can help with the pain a bit, but sometimes you just have to wait it out. [Okay I can update now, so my throat pain was about half gone in four days and completely gone in seven days. So, yes it does take a while.]

- Also, with the sore throat, if you have some water right *before* taking a pill and then have water *with* the pill, it helps prevent your throat from hurting as much (Thank you to my mom for thinking of this). Oh and try to sit up when taking it, for some reason that also helps?

- I know it says don’t lift over two pounds in the first week and that is TRUE and you NEED TO LISTEN TO IT. Trust me it hurts if you try to do heavy lifting, again, just be gentle with yourself.

- “Let pain be your guide,” if you do something and it hurts, don’t do it. If you do something and it tingles, make note of that so you know where to stop next time.

- Anesthesia affects bowel movements, so for the first day to day and a half you might not be able to go, but peeing is still fine, also, don’t worry, you likely will still be able to go to the bathroom alone.

- Ask for help, you will need it and that’s okay.

- Eat easy-to-digest foods (try the “BRATTY” diet, B- banana, R- rice, A- applesauce, T- tea, T- toast, Y- yogurt).

- Recliner chairs are imo the best to sleep in, but if you have to push/pull a level to get the foot-rest up, ASK FOR HELP, since you will likely be using more than two pounds of force on it, which would strain.

- SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. I cannot stress this enough- your body heals through sleep. If you are even on the edge of considering going to sleep just go to sleep. Trust me.

- SET ALARMS FOR YOUR MEDICINES.

- Get a haircut pre-op, it makes cleaning/staying clean so much easier.

- Pajama tops (button ups) are awesome to wear afterwards, you can clip your drains onto them.

- Speaking of drains, they come off at different times from person to person, my doctor told me they usually come out at day ten but mine are coming out at day fourteen just because of scheduling issues. I will update on how the appointment goes when my drains come out (in purple).

- Follow the pain medicine schedule, it’s easier to stay ahead of the pain than try to catch up to it.

- Keep a barf bag (or whatever they’re called lol) near you, especially if you’re more pain sensitive, if your pain spikes you can get very queasy, so having something nearby can seriously save your carpet.

- Speaking of queasy-ness, I was given an an “Aethereo Stick Essential Oil Inhaler, un-nausea” by a nurse after surgery. It’s an aroma therapy stick and it’s helped me when I’m feeling like I’m about to throw up. You can put it in your pocket too since it’s the size of a chapstick. HOWEVER- this is not a full cure for nausea and if you are feeling like you’re gonna throw up you should still have a barf bag just in case.

- Ok so this one the doctors did talk about but for my fellow neurodivergent peeps in the crowd, when they say “no extreme arm movements,” just keep it at T-Rex arms. So, don’t lift your upper arm but you can move it from your elbow. No reaching high (no stretching 😞) just imagine if it moves your pec muscles you shouldn’t be doing it. Just keep your shoulders relaxed/down, try not to use your biceps.

- DON’T PICK AT YOURSELF! Hopefully you already knew this but if you see scabbing LEAVE IT ALONE. Not only will picking make it take longer to heal, it’ll also make scarring worse.

- Don’t be mad at yourself for not being perfectly healed, this stuff takes time and you’ll get back to your regular strength eventually.

- You can always reach out to friends, don’t worry, you’ll get through this part, you are loved, and you are strong enough.