stair climbing after surgery?

Good day, everyone!

Had my pre op today. Fitted with a hospital bracelet already!! I don't have surgery til next week and I still have to meet with clients who will easily see it while I am doing my presentations. I'm not too pleased about this.

Any way, the nurse today told me that I would be fine doing stairs when I get home from surgery. I live in a split level. My bedroom and kitchen are seperated by 7 stairs. I had considered buying a small fridge and microwave to put outside my bedroom door. Bathroom is beside bedroom. I live alone and will not have someone with me all day.

I am having a subtotal abdominal H. I would appreciate hearing from women about their experience with stairs after surgery.

Would it be worth a $200 investment for the convenience of having fridge & micro closer?

I'm not afraid of the surgery. Most afraid of pain control and unknown recovery expectations.

Thanks for reading! I look forward to some replies.

Sylvia

I had a LAVH on Monday and came home on Tuesday morning. I've been up and down the stairs a lot already. I don't know that I'm the norm but I haven't even had any pain medication since surgery. The stairs have not been a problem...I just go slow. Good luck with your surgery - hope it goes as smoothly as mine did.

My doctor asked me to limit my stair climbing to no more than once a day for the first week. It is less from the pain and more the unsteady feeling from anesthetic. I do have an increase in pain when I do the stairs too many times.

A hint to help with pain. My anesthesiologist administered an epidural as well as the general so that when I woke up after surgery I was pain free. Then I had additional pain relief for the first 24 hours from the duramorph he placed in the epidural before I ever woke up. I nearly kissed his feet I was so happy with the results!

Good luck to you.

Thanks for your response.

What's a duramorph?

One more thing... were you able to ask for epideral just before surgery or did you need to order ahead of time?

hi-

i also had a subtotal abdominal h. and i live in a split level. i had to limit the steps the first couple weeks to maybe 4 or 5 times a day.

HondoSam

Was able to handle the stairs, just very slowly. Live in a two-story and shower on second floor. Would take the stairs only twice a day if possible. Make sure you've done everything you need to do on that floor for a few hours before moving to another floor.

This is nice to know, thanks! I live in a split entry house. Fortunately for me, the living area, bathroom, bedroom and kitchen are all on one floor. SInce i don't plan on using my craft room for a couple weeks, and won't be doing laundry for quite some time, i don't expect to need to go to the basement at all for a while, and only occasionally out to the car. I think by two weeks i'll be ok doing the stairs once a day or so.