HOME RECOVERY PROGRAM

Taking care of yourself after surgery and discharge from the hospital

Dr. Bell-Thomson and his staff will provide you with a brochure outlining precautions and a detailed home recovery program to follow once you’ve left the hospital.  The following is a general outline:

Sternal Precautions

The surgeon cut through your sternum (breastbone) to perform surgery on your heart. Bones take longer to heal than your muscle and skin. This healing process will take 4-6 weeks. To heal properly, it is very important for the edges of the bone to stay together and not pull apart. The chances of an infection are greater if the bone pulls apart. With that, please follow these guidelines to protect the sternum and promote healing:

• Move slowly and carefully
• Getting out of bed: Keep your shoulders and hips in line. “Scoot” over to the edge of the bed while on your back.  Bend your knees and roll onto your side.  Gently push yourself with the elbow that is beneath you and swing both legs over the edge of the bed to the floor. Sit on the side of the bed for a moment to get your bearings and stand up using your leg muscles. DO NOT PUSH OFF WITH YOUR ARMS.
• Standing up from a sitting position: Move your buttocks to the edge of the chair. Put one foot slightly in front of the other. Put your hands on your thighs. Bend forward slightly from the hips and stand using your legs. Again, do not push off with your arms.
• Sitting down: Back up until you feel the front edge of the chair with the back of your legs. Use your leg muscles to lower your body to the front edge of the chair. Use your leg muscles to move yourself to the back of the chair. Do not use your arms to push yourself back.
• Reaching/lifting: Do not lift anything more than 5 pounds, including lifting children.
• Try to keep things you need at waist level. If you need to reach for something at waist level, turn and face the object, step close to it, and lean forward from the waist to pick it up. Don’t twist your upper body.
• Exercise or work around the house: No rowing action or vacuuming movements.

Showering
To prevent infection, it is very important to keep your incision clean. Please follow these instructions:

• Shower with warm water every day
• Always wash your hands before touching your incision
• Examine your incisions each time you are getting ready to wash them. You can see your chest incision best by looking in a mirror. Look for separation of the edges, redness, swelling, hardness, local tenderness, and/or mucus or drainage. If you notice any of these symptoms, call you surgeon right away.
• Shower when someone else is present in the house for the first several weeks after surgery. If you wish, you may use a shower chair.
• If you are too tired to shower on a day, you may sit and wash at the sink. Wash your incisions first with warm water and mild soap. Do not share soap. Do not use scented soap. Do not use a washcloth. Rinse with clean water and gently pat dry with a clean towel. You may then wash the rest of your body.
• Let warm water run over your back, not directly on your incisions. Gently wash your incisions – chest incision first, then the arm incision, and the leg incision last. To rinse off the soap, again let the warm water run over your back and not directly on the incisions. Then wash the rest of your body.
• Do not use washcloths on incisions.
• When you get out of the shower, gently pat your incisions with a clean towel. Dry your incisions before you dry the remainder of your body.
• Do not use lotion or powder on your incisions.

Clothing:

• If you are a large-breasted woman, you may be more comfortable in a well-fitting bra to prevent pulling on the incision.

Pets:

• No sleeping with animals.

Click here to download the Home Recovery Guide

To view this guide you will need to download and install the Adobe Acrobat Reader which may be obtained by clicking here.