Getting up and down

I have heard horror stories about the first time you get out of bed.Can anyone give me some suggestions to releve this fear.Also I fear waking up in recovery alone.Can you help here also.How long are you there?
My surgery is Feb.20 and I guess I am just getting nervous

Hi Con

As far as waking up in recovery, you will not be alone!! You will have somebody there taking your vital signs every few minutes, like it or not! And truthfully, you may not even remember being in recovery. So don't worry about that part.

As far as how long you are there, my hospital had a rule that you had to be there at least 1/2 as long as you were in surgery. Plus, you had to be awake and your vital signs normal and your pain under control before you could go to a room. IF that took a long time, your family could come into the recovery room.

As for getting out of bed well, that varies too. You will probably be asked to sit up and just dangle your legs over the side of the bed the first day. The next day you will be asked to move to a chair and maybe walk some, depending on how you are doing. PUSH THE PAIN PUMP before you do any of these activities. It is NOT horrible. It IS uncomfortable. The nurses are used to dealing with people who have had this surgery and will tell you what to expect. At first you will probably think "You have got to be kidding if you think I can walk!" But then you will learn that you can, and that you can even do so standing up straight!

Con, unless you are real different than anybody else I've heard of, including myself, you will find that this is MUCH easier than you imagine. You are going to be surprised to find out just how much easier it is than what you thought or what you have heard from those people who like to tell horror stories. Those people just like to tell stories. You have heard of embellishment?

So relax, there is NOTHING unmanageable about this experience, and this is coming from somebody who had extra stuff taken out and didn't take narcotics. My pain medication even ran out for two hours on the day of surgery. And it was not a horrible experience. Stupid nurses maybe, but not intractable pain.

Hi

I had my TAH (kept one ovary) on Jan. 22. I don't even remember recovery. There is one thing that helped me tremendously.....My Dr. suggested an epidural after surgery for pain control. What a Godsend! They gave it to me in recovery, and I didn't feel a thing! I used the pain pump as much as possible, plus they gave me percocet every 4 hours. I had the surgery on Monday at 7:30 am and by 10:30 I was in my room. The next morning, they "re-charged" my epidural (again no pain at all) and I was up and went to the bathroom after they took the catheter out. Now, they did have to re-catheterize me, Tuesday Eve., but I felt no pain or even discomfort. Wed. am they took the pain pump, IV and epidural away (but not before they re-charded it one more time) and by 6pm that evening the catheter was removed and I was able to potty by 7pm. As far as getting out of bed, rool to your side and use your arm to push you up. Talk to your Dr. about the epidural. It saved me lots of pain and discomfort!

Hi Con:

I understand your fears but there really isn't much to it based on my experience. My fears were worse than reality in every case.

I've been told that I was in recovery for about 3-4 hours but I honestly have no concept of how long I was in there. It didn't seem that long to me but I kept falling asleep. They let my partner come and see me once I was really awake and they worked on getting my pain under control. I hurt quite a bit when I woke up and asked everyone who walked by, including the janitor apparently, to please get me some more pain meds. They gave me a lot of morphine since I kept asking but I think after a while I was asking because I was really confused not because I really needed it. Once I got to my room I hardly used any pain medication and had to be reminded to hit the PCA for some more.

As far as getting out of bed goes, take it in easy steps. Crank the bed all the way up and see how you feel, then sit on the side of the bed and see how it goes, then finally stand up. When its time to give it a try, the nurse will be right there next to you. I was amazed at how easy it was to walk once I got myself on my feet. I didn't set any land speed records but I was able to shuffle down the hall and back in pretty good shape. The worst part was getting from a laying down position to sitting up. Best way to do this is to get the bed in full upright position, then roll to your side and hang your feet over the edge of the bed. Then use your arms to push yourself into a sitting position.

It's really not a horrible experience at all and I'm sure you'll do just fine. Take care and we'll see you on the other side soon.

Con,

The best thing you can do when they let you get out of bed the first time is too STAND UP AS STRAIGHT AS POSSIBLE. Do not give in and do not hump over. Standing up straight aids in the all important breathing that will be needed in your recovery.

As for the recovery room, I never had any problem post op. When I woke up, the nurses were right there asking me if I was in pain. All I can remember is that I was extremely thirsty. So they gave me a drippingly soaked wash cloth to wet my lips which of course sucked I wanted a chocolate shake, but that was a no go.

You will be fine and feel so much better when all is said is done.

Best of luck to you.

Tina

My best friend taught me the best way out of bed.

Raise the head as far as it will go. Make sure the foot is as low as possible. You have to raise the head, lower the foot, raise the head, lower the foot maybe twice in succession or at least the one I was in. AS you raise the head the foot always goes up a little too.

Then do the body roll and up. Took me two tries and it was a snap. Getting out of my bed once I got home was more painful.

First I'm going to say that my surgery and recovery could not have gone better. Having said that, though, you hit on the parts that were the worse for me. I had a general and woke up as I was being wheeled to recovery. I couldn't believe the pain. That went on for about 5 minutes before I was out like a light and woke up 4 hours later (they were waiting for a bed) when they started wheeling me to my room.

The next horror was getting out of bed. Just going from lying down to standing up. It took my breath away, but there was no pain walking, sitting down and standing up on the toilet, etc. So we're talking about 30 seconds each time. It continued to bother me at home for about 5 days and from that point on I had no pain, twinges, etc.

In today's world they don't want you to have pain and will do their best to control it for you.

I keep having the same questions go through my head! I can't quite figure out how it will feel to have to sit up with stitches all across my stomach! And I want to see my DH as soon as I wake up! The comments posted here have been really, really helpful. Thanks to everyone.

Beth
SAH Feb 21st

Con:

I can relate to your fears! I had a TAH (kept both ovaries) on 1/11/01,

First, when you are in recovery you will not be alone. There will be nurses with you. Sometimes, they will even hold your hand to help you focus to your surroundings. You might be a little out of it, but they will be with you. They will even follow you to your room.

Second, I felt the same way you do in How do I sit up, walk and even go to the bathroom. The first day (maybe two) a nurse will be with you. Remember you are still a little weak from surgery. To sit up and get out of bed, this is what I did: put the bed so that I was sitting in it. With the help from the nurse, move one leg down then move the other one. You are now sitting up. Take a min. to get use to sitting up. With the help of the nurse (they are very strong people) move gently to your feet. To get back into bed do the reverse.

What you might want to do (and I did this even if it sounds silly) is to practice in your bed. It helped me.

Take care and you will do great

Jerry