New to forum, new diagnosis need help for post surgery

MFoster said:

Take it easy

I had this surgery 7/21/17 and it was the easiest surgery to date recovery wise. Easier to sit in recliner for a few days. Drink lots of water. My main issue was being tired. I also had an allergic reaction to Dermaflex used to glue my incisions and it was the worst! At four weeks post-op I began peeing alot and burning when I pee accompanied by pelvic pain. I've been treated for kidney and bladder infections but nothing is helping. Hope your hubby has a smooth operation and easy recovery. 

I certainly hope they find the reason for your pain or hope it soon disappears on its own! His surgery was uneventful but he was not prepared for the after surgery pain. He is a tough guy but this has knocked the wind out of him. Thank you for helpful advice! 

Supersum said:

Getting in and out of bed

You asked "what can I expect when he gets home from hospital and what can I do to help him be as comfortable as possible?"

Here is some advice which would have been helpful for me. It might not be helpful for you I do not know your situation.

Getting in and out of bed
 
 The most pain and difficulty will most likely be getting in and out of bed. Patient is lucky he has the opportunity to practice getting in and out of bed before surgery.
 
 Bedding and sleeping plan needs to understood, arranged, and practiced before operation.
 
 Patient will not be able to roll onto or lie on the wound side.
 
 Patient will not be able to get out of bed on the side where the wound is.
 
 Patient will need to sleep on the side of the bed away from the wound and have the bed and room arranged so he can get out of bed from that side.
 
 One of the main movements in getting out of bed after surgery is to roll onto your wound-free side.
 
 Getting in and out of bed takes place at the edge of the bed and involves moving from a lying on the side position to a sitting position on the edge of the bed when getting out, or moving from a sitting position on the edge of the bed, to lying on the side, to lying on the back when getting in.
 
 Patient should practice this to get a general understanding about what needs to be done. The pain will later force him to do it as properly as possible but it is better to get ready beforehand.
 
 Here is a good example of getting out of bed from 1:41 in this video.
 
 (NOTE - the whole video does not apply to a kidney patient because a kidney patient might have very little core stomach strength and will not be able to roll onto wound side)
 
  https://youtu.be/LkFMRm_lO3Q?t=1m41s
 
 You can go to the start of the video to get an idea about how to get into bed, but remember it is not made for kidney patients in particular so core strength might be lacking and patient cannot roll onto the wound side.
 
 This is a good basis for practice but I did not follow it exactly because the pain forced me to make some adjustments such as not keeping my legs together the whole time.
 
 Here is an interesting video using an aid to pull on to get in and out of bed. I didn't see this until bad pain had passed but I think it would have been useful at the beginning as I had to do things on my own.
 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiDy0d7sKQo
 
 Please search on google for terms such as
 
 getting out of bed after kidney surgery
 getting out of bed after surgery
 
 You also must tell medical staff (e.g. nurses) after surgery that patient needs to be shown how to get in and out of bed. If you are lucky someone might be able to show him how to do it but do not rely on this most likely he will not be told.

If patient does not have pain after surgery then that will be fantastic news and his time learning and practicing getting in and out of bed would not have been wasted because it would have contributed to him understanding he has some control over his situation and helped in developing a positive attitude that he can do things in preparing for and recovering from his surgery.

I will try to add some more later.

Thank you..so many things we take for granted until something comes along and slams us with reality. :-)  Great help, much appreciated!

Retcenturion said:

Stairs were hard

I had to take stairs real slow. Moved a gravity lounger into living room for first week as I had hard time getting into and out of bed.the chair helped a lot. Watched a lot of tv, and caught up on some reading. When not napping.The surgeon limited lifting anything over a gallon of milk for 6 weeks. I moved slow and tried not to lift anything!

Gravity lounger sounds like a winner.  Thank you for the idea, he comes home from hospital today or tomorrow.