If you have a friend or family member that will soon be having surgery, you can do a lot by helping to take care of them as they recover. However, if you don’t know what you’re doing or have a plan in place for taking on this responsibility, you could wind up being more of a nuisance than a help.
To ensure that you’ve given your loved one the help and care that they need, here are three tips for caring for someone recovering from surgery.
Make Their Space Safe For Them
When someone has just undergone surgery, they are going to need to take it easy. This could be that they’re not able to interact with the home as they normally would and certain precautions need to be taken for them to be safe in their space.
As part of this, you’ll want to make sure that you keep the floor clear for them. The last thing anyone recovering from surgery wants to do is trip and fall, which could be very painful and set back their recovery. So by removing anything that could cause them to trip and fall, you’ll be helping to keep them safe. Additionally, you may need to move items away from each other so that there’s more space to move around.
Help With Incision Care
Depending on where the surgery was done on their body, your loved one might need help with caring for their incision as everything heals up. Especially if they’re not able to reach this area themselves, or if it will put them in an awkward or uncomfortable position, taking care of this for them can be incredibly helpful. This can be particularly useful if you’re caring for an older person in a senior living facility who has trouble moving their body at the best of times.
As you care for their incision, make sure you know what to look for to tell if it’s healing properly or if there are signs of infection. You should also be sure that you take care to be gentle with this sensitive area.
Take On Tasks They Can’t Do Yet
In addition to helping your loved one stay physically comfortable, you can also take on tasks around their home that will help things run more smoothly for them. This could include things that they either can’t physically do at the moment or things that they don’t have the mental capacity to manage while recovering.
To best do this, consider asking your loved one what you can take care of for them before they have their surgery. Then, as their recovery progresses, you can reassess how you can best be of help to them around the house.
If you’ll soon be caring for someone who’s recovering from surgery, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you know just what you can do to be most helpful.
Comments are closed.