Dr. Robert Whitfield outlines four steps for recovering at home after surgery: walk early to boost circulation, use compression or elevation to move fluid, apply red light or sunlight to reduce inflammation, and use supplemental oxygen to clear anesthesia fog. Add protein powder to every glass of water, since protein is what actually rebuilds tissue.
Come on in. Whether you've had a knee surgery, C-section, dental surgery, or our surgery, most people waste the first day, and this is what you actually should be doing. First thing is walking. Everybody's surprised how early they have to be up, but you don't need any clinic for that. You just need a hallway. This is a compression suit. It moves fluid through your lymphatic system, which is the filtration system you already came with. It's also a big reason I don't use surgical drains. A drain is a tube. It's another foreign body sitting in a site I just closed, and the research shows it doesn't really help. Now, if you're recovering If you're recovering at home with no machine, you get most of this from moving and staying elevated, which again, where walking comes in handy. 10 minutes in front of this red light. It came out of NASA experiments back in the '90s, and scientists found it helps with inflammation and pain. I'll be straight with you, you can also get this at home with as little as 10 minutes outside in the sun. That's all you need. And this is the one that everyone asks about. It's oxygen pressurized a little above what you're breathing right now. It helps you clear anesthesia faster. It helps with the fog people get after an operation. Wound healing. Now this last one is the smallest thing here, but if you had to pick one, I'd tell you to do this. Every glass of water you drink that day should have protein powder like this one. Water doesn't rebuild tissue. Electrolytes don't either. Protein does, and almost nobody eats after an operation because they don't feel like it. So you've got walking, sunlight, elevation, and protein. I've got the machines because my patients fly in for a week. But you can also do most of this at home.
