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Going for a Cardiac Surgery? Read these Recovery Tips in Advance

by Melanie Peterson
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Cardiac surgery or a heart surgery is most certainly an operation that requires a lot of willpower and courage in the patient. If you have been diagnosed with a cardiac illness and are going for a cardiac surgery, it’s better to keep the knowledge regarding recovery ready beforehand.

Generally, your choice of hospital and doctors plays a great role in deciding how well post-surgery care is taken. You might consider looking for best hospitals in your locality or consider medical tourism if hospitals nearby seem too expensive for you. Going for a country like India, where the cost of living is less as compared to other countries could help you in getting affordable as well as quality treatment. Cardiac surgery in India, even if done at one of the best hospitals would cost you much less than one of the western countries.

Going for a cardiac surgery Read these recovery tips in advance

Once you have successfully been through the surgery, here are few of the tips that can help you in a healthy recovery.

Taking care of the wound

You should keep the surgery cut clean and dry all the time. Few days after the surgery, your surgeon will allow you to take bath or shower. You should keep a check on your body and consult your doctor immediately if you see any signs of infection, fever, more than usual oozing of blood from the wound, redness or a warmth around the surgical cut. You should also see your doctor if you feel that your bones are shifting, popping or cracking as you move.

Getting back to routine

This starts with baby steps unless your doctor suggests something else you can go for small tasks with plenty of breaks in between. Walking, light cleaning, laundry, cooking are few tasks you can go for, always remember not to overdo any of them. You can also climb stairs unless your doctors have suggested you otherwise. But it is too soon to drive now, you should wait for instructions from your doctor before doing any serious tasks. You at any cost should not lift push or pull anything that exceeds 10 pounds in weight.

Diet

The food you eat plays a vital role in your recovery, however, you may feel that you have lost your appetite after the surgery. You may not feel like eating or you may be too tired to eat something. You need to understand that this is usual but your body needs some nourishment to recover. Try to maintain a balanced diet, consume adequate fluids so that you can restore your bowel pattern to normal. Your dietician may have already suggested some diet plan that you are required to follow. Avoid the extremes such as too much sugar, or things with too much sodium or cholesterol content.

Staying Motivated

Apart from all the physical tasks you perform, it’s important to keep your mind focused on recovery and not on the disabilities the surgery has inflicted on you for the period of time. This is vitally important for your mental health. Disinterestedness is common after surgery but to hold that feeling and to let it ruin your state of wellbeing is not done easily. Therefore, you need to do everything you can to keep yourself motivated to achieve something every day. Getting dressed well every day, going for a walk, interacting with others and picking up some of your hobbies and interests would help in keeping the mind engaged. These are all small acts that can make a huge difference to your mental health. If you were to stay in bed all day, every day for months upon end while recovering, you could are actually more likely to pick up viruses. This is why even if a doctor tells you that you need bed rest, they will encourage you to sit up and cough throughout the day to clear your lungs. Plus, your mental health with likely decline too and even worsen symptoms like insomnia. Finding the motivation to get up and achieve something will really help in your recovery, no matter how small.
If you are struggling to find motivation, why not set yourself a goal? If you break this goal into achievable steps, you don’t have to feel overwhelmed by it. Some great goals you can set yourself include reaching a certain hobby skill level, finishing a project, increasing your knowledge, and learning a new skill. Some you can then continue long after you have recovered. Take the example of increasing your knowledge. You may find yourself feeling inspired by the amazing nursing staff that took care of you and feel motivated to make a difference to more people when you’ve recovered. In this case, you could look at taking an online nursing course. This is perfect to start while in recovery. You can spend sometime breaking down your ideal career path route. For example, your ultimate goal could be to become a Nurse Practitioner. Applying to a Nurse Practitioner Texas college would, therefore, be part of this process, but first, you would need to earn your BSN degree. 
Start looking into colleges you can attend, and another day applying and completing all the requirements to get in. This all may take some time, but if you can sort this out quickly, you may find yourself attending online nursing school while still in recovery. Working towards your nursing degree can keep you motivated to get out of bed which can aid your recovery.

Get a good night’s sleep

You may face some problems in sleeping for initial few days but your sleep pattern would restore itself soon, while this happens, try to avoid taking caffeine during evening times. Avoid taking too many naps during the daytime. Make sure you are sleeping in a comfortable position and arrange for pillows if your body needs some support.

Everyone has his or her own recovery speed, therefore no matter how the body responds, stay calm and optimistic always and consult your doctor if any other kind of discomfort bothers you.

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