AFTER SURGERY
It’s our hope that your post op recovery is as quick and comfortable as possible. Please follow these instructions carefully and if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact your surgeon’s office.
Anesthesia:
If you have had a general anesthetic, you may experience nausea, fatigue or mild confusion in the next 24-48 hours. Try to relax at home. Someone else should be responsible for getting you home safely and assisting you during your initial recovery period. Begin with clear liquids and eating light foods, resuming your normal diet as tolerated.
If you received a nerve block as part of your anesthetic, you may not be able to move your surgical arm or leg due to weakness and you may have numbness that can all last upwards of 18 hours. This is normal with a block. Protect your surgical area and wear your splint/sling/boot provided. If you are told you may use your limb after your surgery, first make sure your block has worn off fully before trying to bear weight.
When your block wears off, it is normal to feel some pain. Begin taking your medications as prescribed prior to the block wearing off to ensure you stay ahead of the pain rather than “playing catch up” afterwards.
Side effects:
Possible side effects from the anesthetic as well as pain medicines can include nausea, vomiting and constipation. The most basic medication to help with nausea is Gravol 25-50mg every 6 hours by mouth. This can be obtained without a prescription at the pharmacy. For constipation, you can talk to your pharmacist about over the counter options such as Colace but for the most part, increasing the amount of fiber in your diet, staying hydrated and limiting pain medication use around this time is more important.
Activity and things to watch out for:
Unless otherwise specified, you should remain non-weightbearing on the operated extremity using crutches or sling and elevating the extremity as much as possible. This means no walking for leg surgery and no pushing, pulling or lifting for arm surgery. Elevation is key to help keep swelling at bay. Ideally, you should elevate the surgical area above the level of your heart if you can. This helps with pain as well as swelling and wound healing. For the first week, you should elevate for 80% of the day. For the second week, 50% of the day. after this you can elevate for comfort.
You’ll find if you do too much too soon you may be sore, swollen and/or more red. This is an indication you may not be elevating enough or for long enough and this should improve once you spend some time with it elevated. If this approach as well as icing and pain medications doesn’t help your discomfort or it is associated with new redness, discoloration of the digits (purple or white), continuous drainage from the wound or new numbness then you should seek medical attention by either calling the office or visiting your local emergency department. If you develop excessive swelling or pain in your calf, chest pain or trouble breathing, this could be a sign of a rare but serious complication called a deep vein thrombosis or Pulmonary Embolus. If you experience these symptoms, please go to the nearest emergency department right away.