Have you ever broken your wrist while suddenly slipping on ice? Or you could cut your left hand while cooking your favorite meal. Unfortunately, this happened and required surgery to fix it. Having wrist surgery can be overwhelming, but with some essential pre-preparation, you can help yourself during or after the procedure.
This article presents essential steps you can take to prepare for a more manageable recovery.
Plan Your Schedule
Check your personal and work schedules before scheduling a surgery date to allot time for your surgery and recovery. In wrist surgery, the recovery period is expected to range from a few weeks to several months. This time limit depends on the procedure.
This is why you should adjust your daily work or other scheduled activities based on your recovery progress. Complete major work such as shopping, yardwork, house cleaning, and other chores ahead of time. The day before surgery can be stressful enough, so plan accordingly.
Keep your Wrist Elevated
Easing stress on your wrist is essential to make the procedure easy. The doctors recommend not putting too much pressure on your arm or wrist. Otherwise, you’ll feel severe pain at the time of surgery. So, you have to take these precautions: when sitting or lying down, rest your hand on a pillow. This practice helps to keep your wrist elevated.
This will be overwhelming when you are most likely struggling with daily activities with only one arm available. This is why you should ask your family and friends to help out where possible.
Additionally, you can keep your arm elevated by removing it from the sling for an hour or so to stretch the elbow and shrug your shoulders. This technique can help prevent joint stiffness. And believe us when we say, you do not want to suffer from stiff joints, as it can become tough to move your arm.
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Clothing and Wearables
When you go for surgery, wear loose, comfortable clothing, such as a T-shirt or a loose-fitting shirt. This type of dressing can fit over bulky dressings and bandages following surgery.
One of the most essential things is to leave jewellery and valuables at home. Only wear necessary things and wear easy-to-get-on shoes, etc. Avoid wearing makeup or lipstick, and do not apply nail paint for intra-op monitoring. You should remove contacts, eyewear, dentures, hearing aids, watches, rings, etc. It is best to leave everything at home that you can.
Food and Help Arrangements
After the surgery, you can’t travel or cook for yourself, so you need to take help from others, such as a family member or a friend, or arrange a caretaker. If you are a person who would not find any help, you should stock up on dinners, soups, snacks, and other foods. These types of food can be opened and prepared with one hand.
Put all perishable food in easy-to-open, disposable, freezer-safe containers. Keep ready milk and other items in smaller, easier-to-handle sizes. Moreover, stock up on groceries a week or two in advance to reduce the need for a shopping trip. Otherwise, hand pain and swelling during the recovery period will increase.
