Truman Customer Story Column
I Only Remember It Going Just as It Was Explained
That is what this person wrote when asked what moment stayed with them from the surgery: "I only remember it going just as it was explained."
From the patient's side, I do not think there is a better state than that. It means nothing unexpected happened. That is exactly why we spend time on consultation. For nothing new to arise in the operating room, it all has to have been gone through in words beforehand.
The Period When Activity Is RestrictedWhat this person worried about most before surgery was the restriction on activity afterward. They wrote that there are various ways to cope now, and they are using them.
Here is what we actually advise. For 12 to 48 hours after surgery you spend the time with additional compression over the garment, and the next day we check for bleeding at the clinic before removing it. During this period you must not do upper-body exercise. Light walking and lower-body squats are fine instead.
Hearing "activity restriction," many people imagine a state of being unable to do anything, but in reality what you must not do and what you may are clearly divided. Someone who knows that boundary and someone who does not experience the same period quite differently. Of course recovery speed and the length of restriction vary with the extent of surgery and individual condition.
For their impression of the first visit, along with noting the kind and detailed explanation, they wrote: "You could feel this was work they'd done a great many times."
I do not know exactly where patients sense that. It may be the order of the explanation, or the items we raise before being asked. But the questions that come up in consultation are largely fixed, and it is possible to place the answers before the questions arrive. Then people leave the consulting room with nothing unanswered.
For what they most wanted to do after surgery, they wrote: "I want to wash more thoroughly and train."
Both come back in order, in line with the recovery schedule. Do not rush upper-body training in particular. Resuming exercise after time has passed is not a special achievement but an expected part of the course. Trying to move it up by a few days and delaying recovery instead is the more troublesome outcome.
To others with the same concern, they answered to the effect that it was better not to drag the decision out. That is what they experienced, and whether your condition calls for surgery is something to judge after confirming it through an examination. But I would add that there is no better way to organize your questions than an examination.
