Will I need assistance during recovery?

[Lawrence13]

Im about a month out from surgery with Dr. Eid. I live alone in nyc and my girlfriend of 14 months left me about 5 weeks ago. I have no family near by. So I don’t really have anyone to help me through recovery should it become necessary. I’ve read recovery experiences ranging from “full blown living nightmares” to “ not really that bad.” It’s hard to get a sense of what the norm is…. If there is such a thing.

My question is this:

Will I be able to recover on my own with out any assistance?

I’m fairly self sufficient and will do all I can to prepare.

Any thoughts would be appreciated thanks.

[duke_cicero]

You are young and healthy, by your own admission. I was 34 when I had mine done. I lived alone and didn't have anyone around to help me. It wasn't fun for the first week, but it wasn't a nightmare. My thought is that you won't need help. But there are ways to make sure that your experience is easier.

The most important thing is setting yourself up for success in the days and weeks prior to surgery.

Deep clean your apartment. Have clean and comfortable bedding. Make sure you have access to the painkillers you need—and that you take them long before you think you'll need them (I learned this the hard way). Do not be a hero.

Make sure you have things like a portable urinator jug in the event that you can't make it to the toilet in time in the early days. A decent one with a handle is like $5 or something on Amazon.

Have bottles of water ready in every room in your apartment, if that makes it easier to remember to drink water. Surgery is bad enough on the body and requires heavy hydration in recovery. Painkillers make hydration even more of a necessity.

If you work from home or sit in an office chair for any amount of time, you're going to want to avoid putting pressure on the surgery site, so get yourself one of those donut pillows or fold up towels and place one under each of your glutes so you're a bit supported. This helped me a lot.

Organize your apartment and belongings such that you don't have to lift anything heavier than a few pounds for the first couple weeks. Make sure that you don't have to climb a bunch of stairs (or any stairs, ideally) immediately after returning home from surgery.

You mentioned getting an Uber Comfort on the way back from surgery. You may not be able to do this, because surgery centers usually require someone definite (rather than a random driver on an app) to take you home. There are medical taxi services that they can hire for this purpose. They're expensive, though. It might be better to have someone you trust pick you up. That person (whether the medical taxi driver or the person you know) will also be able to help you pick up your meds from the pharmacy.

I hope that your apartment has an elevator. It's not catastrophic if you need to use the stairs, but it might be uncomfortable. Give yourself time and be patient.

I'm sure others will have lots of useful tips from the field, but this is what I was able to come up with off the top of my head.

[ElbowRoom]

One thing that I did to make things easier was signing up for a pre-made meal plan. I used cookunity.com, they delivered very good quality fresh (not frozen) pre-made meals that just required a couple of minutes in the microwave. You probably won’t feel like cooking, and just being able to make a good meal in minutes is really great. It’s better for you than grocery store frozen meals or ordering delivered meals from a restaurant.

[learnmore]

Im about a month out from surgery with Dr. Eid. I live alone in nyc and my girlfriend of 14 months left me about 5 weeks ago. I have no family near by. So I don’t really have anyone to help me through recovery should it become necessary. I’ve read recovery experiences ranging from “full blown living nightmares” to “ not really that bad.” It’s hard to get a sense of what the norm is…. If there is such a thing.

My question is this:

Will I be able to recover on my own with out any assistance?

I’m fairly self sufficient and will do all I can to prepare.

Any thoughts would be appreciated thanks.

If you really need help I work in Midtown manhattan.
I will dm you my phone number.
I have two consultation appointment for surgery late april and early may.