Sunday, 13 March 2016

Things to do before surgery

Because I had my consultation the day before surgery, my preparation was based on email exchanges with Hanse and my reading online. I hope having everything in one place might help someone:

Clothing

Work out your clothes for travelling/early days.  if you are having lower legs you might find your feet swell or are padded, so might need a larger size shoe/hard soled slipper.  

In the clinic you won't need to take a nightdress as you sleep in their garment (well I did!). Keeps your own clothes clean from leaks and as they gave me a clean garment at some point, it seemed that they expected me to stay in their garment and dressing gown.  I had spent ages combing shops for a suitable nightdress to wear there instead of my PJs!

I made sure I had a stash of baggy jogging trousers and tunic tops/loose nightdresses so I had no elastic or tight seams on my bruises.  

Surgery shopping

I made a list of the things I purchased.  I would also book a supermarket delivery or kind friend to get you fresh food and tasty meals when you get home.  I didn't want to go walking around the supermarket on my first day home and hub and I felt better about him being home with me instead of out shopping.  

MLD

Find your therapist, decide if you want a massage pre-surgery to see if you get on, and then book in your first session for the week after your surgery.  

Pre-surgery blood tests

Hanse will ask for a set of pre-surgery blood tests to be done.  If you aren't in Germany around 2 weeks before your surgery you'll need to get your GP or hospital consultant to organise these via the NHS or find a private provider like BUPA.  My experience of this was that it took some organising.

Home prep

Make the bed with your waterproof sheet before you leave to save an annoying job when you get back.  I had to find another duvet and get hub to change the bed the night we flew back.  That wasn't popular!  Also (if you share a bed with a partner) work out where they are sleeping for the first few nights so you can get all that bedding ready too.  I had got home before I realised I didn't want to risk leaking on my good cream bedding!   

Regular towels are likely to be fine - I got only a little drip of fluid on mine and was washing them regularly to keep down on transferring any infection from my morning showers.  

Think about where you are going to sit.  I put a blanket on the sofa with pads ready so I could collapse when I got home without worrying.  

My carpets and flooring were fine.  The only time I dripped anything like I did in the clinic was after a shower in the first two days, so if you don't want to risk staining your bath mat use another puppy/incontinence pad as a mat to get onto for drying yourself and changing your dressings.  I stood on these until I was sure I was clean.  

Packing/Travel plans 

I didn't consider eurostar, I guess it would be a very long journey to drive all the way. We booked flights to Hamburg then took the train to Lübeck.  You could hire a car, we just didn't plan on travelling outside the two cities and thought it seemed easier.  

Consider if you are taking carry on only or checking in a bag.  Because we managed to pack light and go carry on only, I had to ensure I was aware of the security rules on 100ml max size liquids.  This affected my toiletry packing.  

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