Preparing for a Surgery, the Basics.
Your surgery has been scheduled. What can you do to be prepared? You have a great opportunity to have a great outcome from your surgery by preparing. There are a multitude of things you can do. Let’s discuss the basics.
There are two things we do more than anything in life. Sleep and eat. Assessing and reviewing your sleeping schedule is the first thing you can do. Science has proven that the time you are in bed before midnight is significantly more valuable than if you go to bed after midnight. High quality sleep is one of the key components to a healthy natural recovery from surgery. Becoming aware of when you go to bed is the first step in preparing for surgery. If you go to bed earlier, let’s say before 10pm and you get 8 hours of sleep. You are off to a great start. If you find yourself staying up late, then it’s time to work on going to bed earlier. You can train yourself to go to bed earlier. A key skill is to put away your devices, cell phone, iPad, and turn the television off at least an hour before you want to go to sleep.
Once you have a great sleeping regimen, the second piece of getting great rest is to be able to nap during the day. This is important in post-op recovery, for you will get tired and want to sleep at some point during the day. After surgery, while your body is healing, will require additional rest. Training yourself to nap and rest throughout the day will set yourself up for success.
The second basic component to preparing for a successful surgery is your diet and intake. A healthy diet and regular hydration is a key component to living a healthy and active lifestyle. Importantly for healing, a high quality diet will facilitate optimal healing. In reviewing your diet one should be aware of several key items. 1) Protein intake. Your body will be healing your operated tissue and adequate protein will aid your body in restoring your tissues to normal. 2) Healthy fats. Quality fats from things such as olive oil, avocado, coconut oil and others provide essential nutrients for a healing body. 3) Fruits and vegetables. They provide essential vitamins and minerals for healing and also provide another critical component you will need, fiber. Fiber assists your digestive system to function correctly. In the first week or two post-op from a surgery you may need opiod pain killers. They are incredibly constipative, and fiber will aid you in preventing constipation. The 4th component in your diet, and most important is your SUGAR intake. Become aware of your sugar intake. In your time prior to surgery I would recommend to limit or eliminate sugar from your diet. Sugar can be inflammatory to your system. In your post-op recovery you will want to limit any outside inflammation as you will be resolving the inflammation caused by the surgery. High sugar and/or a high starch intake also spikes your insulin. Insulin is a hormone. This is important because another important hormone you need to heal is glucagon. Glucagon assists your body in healing of your musculoskeletal system. Glucagon will not be present if you are spiking your insulin. By limiting your sugar and starch intake you will facilitate glucagon to assist you in your recovery.
Along with your healthy diet, drinking water regularly will be a major component to your optimal healing from surgery. Water is important when you are healing, as it assists your cells in healing. Opiods are also incredibly diuretic, and one needs to be drinking water, at least 4 glasses of 8 ounces, at a minimum to stay hydrated. Becoming dehydrated will slow your healing and can affect your cognition and blood pressure while you are healing.
These are the basics, your basic building blocks in your plan for optimal recovery from surgery. Sleep, rest, diet and hydration.
