A medical preparer walks through six weeks of post-surgery recovery at home: wear loose button-front clothes, keep daily items at waist level to avoid reaching, prep freezer meals so you're not shopping, and take more time off work than you think you'll need.
I am a preparer in general, but there are things that I think you can do to set your home up for success when you come back, setting your life up for those first 6 weeks. So some of the things I'll just kind of go through, if I was talking to, you know, as a patient, you know, even preparing the clothing you're bringing. A lot of people like to bring a lot of looser stuff. They bring stuff that buttons up, zips, that way they don't have to, you know, do a lot of arm movements that are unnecessary. You know, before leaving your house, a lot of people prepare bringing stuff down more to like kind of their level so they're not doing a ton of reaching. If someone's under the muscle, we don't like them to, you know, reach above their shoulders for about 4 weeks. So setting yourself up for success that way. A lot of people and moms, they do a lot of freezer meals and prep things, have groceries or somebody helping them with the groceries so they don't have to, you know, go around and pushing the cart because I know for myself, like, I like to cook a lot and I like certain things and I, you know, my husband, he does not cook as much. And so I wanted to make sure I was still getting the nutrition and those kinds of things when I got home. The other thing is, you know, whatever your work schedule is, I think people really underestimate like how much they should take off.
