Recovering from Surgery

Before you have surgery it’s important to understand how long It will take you to recover? Your surgeon can tell you how you might feel and what you will be able to do, or not do, in the first few days, weeks, or months after surgery.

Ask how long you will be in the hospital.

Find out what kind of supplies, equipment, and help you will need when you go home. Knowing what to expect can help you get better faster.

Ask how long it will be before you can go back to work or start regular exercise again.

You do not want to do anything that will slow your recovery. For example light lifting may not seem to be “too much” a week after your operation, but it could be. You should follow your surgeon’s advice to make sure you recover fully as soon as possible.

Ask the Surgeon How Long You Will Be in the Hospital. Until recently most patients who had surgery stayed in the hospital overnight for 1 or more days. Today many patients have surgery done as an outpatient in a doctor’s office, a special surgical center, or a day surgery unit of a hospital. These patients have an operation and go home the same day. Outpatient surgery is less expensive because you do not have to pay for staying in a hospital room.

Ask whether your operation will be done in the hospital or in an outpatient setting.

Ask which of these is the usual way the surgery is done. If your doctor recommends that you stay overnight in the hospital (have inpatient surgery) for an operation that is usually done as outpatient surgery—or recommends outpatient surgery that is usually done as inpatient surgery ask why. You want to be in the right place for your operation.