[LBP]

Nairek,

I wish you best of luck.

There are a lot of things that should be on your checklist including raised toilet seats, grabbers etc. I had my surgery out of state and I stayed in a hotel near the hospital for a couple weeks post surgery before flying home. I used 2 grabbers to put on socks/footsies. I also used the 2nd grabber when I frequently dropped the first grabber. I absolutely needed the raised toilet seat in my hotel room. The grabber was also very useful in the hospital room! To pull up your covers or grab a pillow from a near by chair, pull the food tray closer to get a drink, etc. After my discharge, I was in a hotel for a couple weeks before flying cross country. I had my dad get me a little basket and drink holder attachment for my walker so I could get to the hotel breakfast and move around on my own. For me these were some of the best investments given my situation.


I also had very sensitive/painful nerve issues in my feet (heels and left big toe) post surgery so ended up needing a pair of shoes one size bigger than normal, including larger size slippers with no back on them. Slip on shoes are the best. You don't want to be messing around with lace up shoes.

You must have someone helping you during your stay in the hospital. You need someone to stay on top of your care to make sure things are not falling through the cracks. Nurses are less likely to dismiss your sane advocate who calls for them to do or fix something. I was left on the comode forever with toilet paper out of reach, and my comode was too far from my bed to move safely by myself. Nurses would also forget to re hook up my leg compression machine after a visit to the comode or after a PT or OT session, or they would forget to put my oxygen back on...and my dad would notice and questions these things way before I did.

If you have to bring meds from home that are unrelated to your surgery...there's procedure to follow. They have to keep the meds in special place and it takes some energy to get that coordinated once you are able to eat and thus able to restart any other meds. The nurses are not always understanding or knowledgable about what you might be taking. My dad was very helpful in getting this organized for me. You are not supposed to bring home meds with you going into surgery. Someone needs to bring them to you in the hosp after your first day or two post surgery.You wont be allowed to take any outside meds without your surgeon's approval and not until you are able to eat food.

Before surgery, I asked my surgeon if I should do more PT or pilates. He strongly urged pilates to help increase my core strength. He said the stronger your core section going into surgery the easier the recovery. So if you can safely do things to improve stomach / back muscles, it sure wont hurt. Maybe some things you've learned from PT? I had a really good private pilates instructor who was used to dealing with people who had back problems, so I felt safe doing pilates with her. I would never recommend doing pilates or starting anything new if you don't know what you're doing, and don't know if your doing it safely.

One more thing...get some Miralax or your prefered laxative for home. Take it regularly after discharge from the hospital! Nothing worse than being constipated when you're in pain from a surgery. In addition to Miralax, you may also want to get a little jar of gylcerin suppositories (a more drastic immediate laxative). I was in a lot of pain post surgery. I took a lot of morphine in the hospital, threw up a few times. At discharge they wrote an Rx for Nordco (a little stronger than Vicodin), it wasn't doing the job and I needed percocet. I ended up using both forms of laxatives to get things moving. I was taking the max number of percocets for awhile. I was up every 2 hours, all night long to move around due to horrible foot pain/big toe throbing pain, and every 4 hours taking the pain meds. It was rough the first week + after discharge. Not saying this will happen to you but it's better to be prepared and not need something than the other way around.

I didn't have a big appetite after discharge. Just basic foods to take with meds. Pudding, crackers, pretzels, juice, water, fresh fruit.

Best of luck