Why you need post-surgery rehab
After surgery, your surgeon or other medical doctor has most likely prescribed some type of rehabilitation with a physiotherapist. Beyond what might have been clinically recommended, many patients experience a lot of pain, loss of motion, swelling, difficulty in breathing, weakness, and a risk to complications such as clotting and chest infections. Surgery patients may also experience stiffness, reduced mobility as well as reduced balance and coordination, reduced independence and low tolerance to exercise. Getting up and staying mobile is essential to help a patient restore his or her activity level just like before the injury. Post-surgery rehab entails all the procedures and activities that a patient undertakes to attain maximum recovery and restoration to normal activities and recreation. Rehab after surgery allows for quicker recovery and minimizes the chances of post-surgery complications. Post-surgery rehabilitation can help a surgical patient:
Learn how to perform daily tasks after surgery and get back to normal activities
Regain mobility and restore normal movement in the affected joint
Manage pain and ease swelling after surgery
Regain independence
Improve flexibility
Regain strength in the muscles and the affected area
Encourage circulation after surgery to avert problems with blood clots.
Stretch out muscles that may stiffen because of the surgery
Improve balance and posture
Get advice on ideal positioning to improve comfort and minimize the risk of pressure sores.
Your physiotherapist will develop a plan tailored to your post-surgical recovery needs and manages your program to ensure its success, with a plan to restore strength, mobility, and activity following surgery or injury. Your physiotherapist will help you carry out the right exercise at the appropriate time and make necessary adjustments as you progress with recovery.
When does Post-surgery rehab start?
After surgery, the doctor may have you begin moving your joint very soon. If you are experiencing little or some bearable pain, you can start on the same day of operation. It is essential that you start with the basics. Start by sitting at the edge of the bed. Proceed to stand and take a few steps with some support. Your physiotherapist will help with some simple exercises. The therapist may ask you to tense and relax the muscles around the joint.
Rehab at home
Your physiotherapist will instruct you on exercises, activities and tasks to perform at home to support in your recovery and rehabilitation. You progressively move to more strengthening exercise as your endurance improves. Rehab can speed recovery from any operation you undergo. Whether heart surgery, joint replacement, hip replacement, or any other surgical procedure, rehabilitation will help with healing and restoration of the affected area. Recovery from surgery depends on the willingness of a patient to work with their physiotherapist and to extend to continue working at home. The overall benefit of post-surgery rehab is to encourage faster healing and help a surgery patient a chance to regain a fully normal life.
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