Recovery and aftercare
The information in this section is for general orientation and does not replace personal medical assessment, instructions or follow-up. Always follow your surgeon's recommendations.
Recovery has a logic and it helps to know it: almost everything that is frightening in the first days is expected, and the few things that are not need recognising fast. This guide helps you tell them apart.
Your post-operative instructions
On discharge you receive your plan in writing: medication, dressings, when you can shower, what you can move and when your first check-up is. It is written for your case and your procedure.
Read it with whoever will be with you at home. The first hours after anaesthesia are not the moment to memorise anything, and it helps to have a second person who knows what comes next.
- Put the plan somewhere visible.
- Write down the time of each dose: when you are drowsy, doses get doubled or skipped.
- Keep the contact number where you can find it at three in the morning.
Wound care
Wounds are dressed the way you were told and with what you were told. There are dressings and surgical glues that are not to be touched, and dressings that are changed at home: they are not the same thing and your sheet says which is which.
What should never be done on your own initiative is putting alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, creams, oils or home remedies on a fresh wound, or removing stitches or scabs. If you are unsure how a wound looks, a well-lit photo sent to the practice settles most questions.
- Wash your hands before and after touching any dressing.
- Do not get the wound wet until you are cleared to.
- A dressing staining slightly is usual; one soaking through is not.
Drains
Not every procedure uses a drain. When one is used, it is a thin tube that removes fluid collecting under the skin, and it comes out when it is no longer needed, not on a fixed date.
If you go home with a drain, you are shown how to empty it, how to secure it so it does not pull, and how to record the output. That record is not bureaucracy: it is exactly the figure used to decide when it comes out.
- Note the amount and colour each time you empty it, with the time.
- Pin it to your clothing: most of the scares are from it being tugged.
- Call if output stops suddenly, if the smell changes, or if the area swells.
Personal hygiene
When you can shower depends on the procedure, the dressings and whether you have drains, and you are told in writing. Until then, you wash in sections without wetting the area.
The bath, the pool, the sea, the jacuzzi and the sauna come much later than the shower: submerging a wound is not the same as wetting it. Ask about each one separately at your check-up.
- Warm water, not hot: heat increases swelling.
- Pat dry, never rub.
- No hair removal, creams or exfoliants on the area without clearance.
Moving and resting
Rest does not mean lying still. Walking a little and often around the house, from the first day and as soon as you are cleared, is one of the things that prevents complications; staying motionless in bed for hours on end is the opposite.
What does have to be avoided is strain: carrying weight, bending, reaching up, driving or pushing. Sleeping position and how long each restriction lasts depend on the procedure and are in your plan.
- Get up by rolling onto your side and pushing with your arm, not your abdomen.
- Move your feet and ankles when you are sitting for a long time.
- Do not drive while taking medication that makes you drowsy.
Massage and lymphatic drainage
Lymphatic drainage sessions are indicated for some procedures and not for others, and starting them too early, or with someone who does not know what was operated on, can do harm. Dr. García decides whether they apply to you, from when, and how often.
If you are going to an outside centre, take your written instruction and say which procedure you had. Aggressive massage on a recently operated area speeds nothing up.
- Do not start sessions on your own or because another patient recommended them.
- Stop and call if a session leaves you with pain or new bruising.
Follow-up appointments
Follow-up is part of the procedure and is planned from the outset. Wounds are checked, stitches or drains come out when due, and anything that needs adjusting is adjusted.
Feeling fine is not a reason to skip one: much of what gets corrected in time is picked up at a check-up, not from symptoms. And if you cannot make it, reschedule rather than let it go.
- Write questions down as they occur to you: they vanish in the room.
- Bring photos if something caught your attention and has since settled.
- Give notice in advance if you cannot attend.
What applies to your case is given to you in writing by Dr. García, with your quotation and your consent form. If anything here does not match your sheet, your sheet is the one that counts.