Dr. Robert Whitfield shares how to prepare your home for surgery recovery. Wear loose, front-opening clothes, keep daily items at waist level, avoid overhead reaching for four weeks if your implant goes under the muscle, and prep freezer meals ahead. Most patients underestimate how much time off work they actually 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.
