3 weeks post opp

Symptoms and Treatments Surgery and Recovery
1

Not feeling any improvement yet. If anything I’m weaker than before the surgery. Is this normal?

2

Yes. Major surgery involves a recovery period. I am sure that your surgeon outline an idea of where you would be. I was told to have live-in support for at least three weeks and that I should expect to feel poorly for 3 months. Recovery would be slow with ups and downs depending on if I listened to my activity and stimuli limits.

Take it easy

3

I was told to not expect to see real results until after at least my 2nd follow up post op. I had surgery in Oct and some post op issues finally went away about 2 months ago just listen to your body it will let you know if something is wrong.

4

My Goodness! It took me three weeks just to recover from the anesthesia-lag! I slept 18 hours a day the 3 weeks post surgery. My neurosurgeon didn’t like that idea and told me to ‘get going!’ I was so proud when I went for my first walk. All of 50 yards or so. It took me three years post surgery before I started doing regular daily workouts, though. Yeah. It’s slow. Recovery takes patience - and can go on for YEARS.

5

Thanks for all your replies
Not much change yet…

6

Recovery will be different for everyone, however it is major surgery and it takes time and patience. It is slow and has it’s ups and downs. It took me forever to get beyond the anesthesia and the post surgery complications I experienced(meningitis twice), Listen to your body, be sure to try to walk/move a little every day, drink lots of fluids and just be patient. I am 8 months post op and it took a while to feel better. I feel very good now, but still have some cognitive issues related to the meningitis episodes. Hang in there!

7

Hi there:

The others here have posted good advice.

I am 13 years post op and lead a pretty normal life. Even though it seems long ago, I remember how tough it was to recover.

I felt like you that I had the surgery and just wanted to be perfect. I made some mistakes that delayed my recovery, so here’s some advice:

  • try to get off your meds sooner than later

  • rest your head frequently throughout the day. Wear a neck brace for support. Do NOT bend down if you don’t have to. Leave the gum wrapper on the floor. ; )

  • avoid pushing or pulling. No vacuuming, no walking floors,keep stair climbkmv to a minimum and avoid driving or anything that jogs your head, I heated my head every night for an hour, and that helped.

Your pillow matters! Make sure whatever you are using is comfortable for your new head. I’ve had to sleep in my side ever since.

Take it easy was always advice I hated, but it’s true. Give yourself time, don’t lift things, have somebody else do house chores and lifting at grocery stores. Take a short walk every day to keep your spirits up, big walk slowly and be careful not to jostle your head.

There is NOTHING you can do to make your head heal quicker. But find things to keep your brain active so you don’t dwell on it.

4 months was a milestone for me I. Feeling better. And I felt mostly normal after a year.

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8

I love this! What a great response and so full of hope and positive.

9

Great advice…for me the taking it easy part was difficult especially when they said no heavy lifting…hard to follow those instructions when I had to lift my own weight due to being in a wheelchair and having to do transfers although I ended up using a slide board. My Dr. was not happy about me having to do it but couldn’t give another option so accepted it.