In this episode of Caring Conversations, Melissa Therrien and Liz Lewington discuss the critical role of home care in supporting post-operative recovery, particularly after hip and knee surgeries. They explore the importance of preparation for surgery, effective pain management, and the need for professional support during recovery. The conversation emphasizes the significance of communication between healthcare providers and families to ensure a safe discharge from the hospital and a smooth transition home. The hosts also highlight the emotional aspects of recovery and the value of involving family members in the care process.
Transcript:
Melissa Therrien, RN (00:01)
Hello and welcome back to Caring Conversations. We are on episode eight, Liz. Isn’t that amazing? We’ve come so far.
Liz Lewington, LPN (00:06)
Yes. and yet we still sit in the same seats.
Melissa Therrien, RN (00:13)
I know we actually haven’t gone anywhere.
I changed out my shirt today just to prove that I can do laundry.
Liz Lewington, LPN (00:19)
Yeah, look at you. You are looking good
today. Proof that you good? Yeah, well now you’re just bragging. Yeah, fair enough.
Melissa Therrien, RN (00:29)
dear. So today we’re talking about something a little bit different. Today we’re talking about recovering at home, how home care can support post-op surgical recovery, post-operative recovery or post-surgery recovery for those of us not in the healthcare industry. So kind of a different topic. We have touched on a lot of like really senior specific items and today we’re touching on something that
you know, we see across the gamut as far as age categories go. So an interesting topic and I’m looking forward to diving into it. So thanks for joining us again, Liz. Yeah, how do you want to start? Tell us about post-op care.
Liz Lewington, LPN (01:05)
Thank you. Well, I mean, we can talk about how…
vast, you I mean, you name it, the surgery exists. So if you, and it can be a planned surgery, so you can have somebody coming out of the hospital and they have all their ducks in a row because this is something that’s been months and months in the making, or it can be something that was an emergency and now we’re trying to fumble to get everybody lined up. So really, you know, that journey does depend on where, what the reason for it was, what the type of surgery was, what the potential surgery looks, like and the outcome always changes. there’s really no information there. But yeah, what are we dealing with? So a majority of the time what we are, know, folks that we’re bringing home because we do focus a lot on seniors care.
Melissa Therrien, RN (01:47)
Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (02:02)
We’re seeing a lot of post-operative hips or knees, sometimes shoulders, not so much, but those are the surgeries that we do a lot of recuperation at home. those are often, I mean, hips definitely can be a fracture, anything can be a fracture, but those have a more, most of the time.
predictable outcome. You know, 10 days approximately, we’re going to be getting the staples out. These are the parameters on the discharge plan. this is what you can expect for the rest of your life moving forward. it does, you know, changes everything. So yeah, I mean, it is, it’s a vast, it’s a vast topic to start digging into. So I don’t know if we want to go into…
what it looks like in the hospital and how to be discharged or do we want to go into pre-planning? What are you thinking?
Melissa Therrien, RN (02:59)
Yeah, well, I mean, I think we can touch on all of it. let’s, you touched on the hips and the knees. And I think those are really good ones to start with because those are very predictable. Those are your quick in and out as shocking as it may be, usually on post-op day two, which is technically like the second day that you’ve even stepped foot in the hospital, you’re getting ready to go home. And so, you know, that’s a pretty quick turnaround. And I think it comes maybe with a little bit of shock.
And, you know, for those of us that have done this for many years, I think we know, you know, pretty much the trajectory of what that’s going to look like. But let’s talk about that. Like, let’s talk about how to prepare for a surgery that is a planned surgery and why you would consider bringing home care into the picture of what that looks like. Sound good?
Liz Lewington, LPN (03:49)
Yeah, so
let’s say we have a planned hip. This is somebody that has been suffering as the Canadian healthcare system tends to let them for quite an extended period of time. So these are folks that have been holding off on pursuing their life for an extended period of time. So they have a lot of time to think usually about how it’s gonna look. Those folks.
they’re going to be given their they’re going to get an intake, they’re going to go through the process with the physician that’s going to be doing the surgeon that’s going to be doing the surgery, talk about what meds they need to be taken off of prior to it, follow through all of those steps, and then the surgery date happens. So depending
It depends on what procedure they’re going for, how much, you know, if there’s necrosis, blah, blah. But when they’re coming home, the goal would be to have an occupational therapist sort of eye in the home. So things like higher chairs or chairs that will help with raising, having a bath chair that’s high enough that we’re not going to be putting their hip at a potential concern for it, unfortunately popping out of the socket, which can happen. Not very common. I don’t want to scare
everybody but there are precautions and you’ll hear hip precautions, hip precautions is sort of a jargon term that we use and that does have to do with making sure that that hip stays in place, the muscles and the ligaments and everything can start to strengthen around it to allow it to continue to you know function properly.
They come home making sure that they can mobilize in their bed. They can get to the toilet. The following 48 hours after getting home from surgery is very difficult. So it’s nice to have some support in the home, whether it’s family or private care. But having somebody there, especially while that anesthetic, depending if it’s a general, gosh, there’s so much to talk about, Melissa. I’m just bouncing all over the place here. But if it’s a general anesthetic, the outcome can be different and you can have more
especially in seniors, can have more of a cognitive decline or cognitive change, even a day night reversal for some folks if they have a bit of a delirium caused by that. So making sure that you talk to your family, there’s someone that’s going to pick you up, make sure someone can get you home, that you settled in with a pain medication and all of those OT supplies. So a commode can even be nice. You can lift it up nice and high and it can be put next to the bed for toileting. Those sorts of things really are great to have.
Melissa Therrien, RN (06:07)
Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (06:22)
if we’re talking hips. So yeah, so hiring somebody in advance if there’s a surgery coming up, you know, a private company or a nurse or even talking to the doctor and going to a
a supply company that can help you with getting in those items that have been discussed already. That’s great. But bringing in somebody prior to so that, you know, I know Melissa, you’re an expert in the field. have, I don’t want to say expert, but I’ve been there before. So going out into the home and seeing the setup, you know, talking about, you know, they’re not going to be really that great on stairs for a little while. Let’s get the bed in the living room. I know it’s not ideal, but it’s only going
to be for a short period of time. then hydration, very key. Post-surgical UTIs can happen if there’s been a catheterization. So keeping fluids pushed, keeping the bowels functioning, also always important with any condition. But post-surgical, you can really have some concerns that do crop up in regards to that. That’s a lot of information.
Melissa Therrien, RN (07:32)
you
Liz Lewington, LPN (07:34)
would you
like to move forward with this? Because this is that’s a hip and it is it’s it’s intricate and it’s and it’s needed to have
more than just yourself if it’s only you that’s going through this. So if you’re a single person on your own, I recommend having somebody come to stay with you, either a loved one or somebody that can actually provide ongoing support through those first few days. And then as you need it, as you get stronger, you just decrease it and then you don’t need us anymore and you’ll be out running buck wild in the streets. So knowing that using your new hip for a good reason.
Melissa Therrien, RN (07:46)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dancing.
Exactly.
Liz Lewington, LPN (08:12)
Yeah, all the things.
Melissa Therrien, RN (08:13)
Yeah, I think that that’s a good point because I think people are a daunted by the fact that they’re provided so much information pre op and that everyone kind of throws it at them like this is no big deal because thousands of hip or knee or you know, orthopedic surgeries happen on a very daily basis. We know this. So for us, it’s like no big deal. You know, we’re going to throw you out of the hospital.
the day after your surgery. And if you can walk three or four steps, then you’re good to go. Like that’s a thumbs up, enjoy your day kind of thing, which can feel really intimidating for people going into it, young or old. mean, we’ve had clients that are in their 40s that have had hip or knee replacements. And then we’ve had clients in their 90s having hip replacements. There’s all sorts of complications that can happen, but
rest assured, you know, the information that’s provided to you and the process of that recovery can be quite straightforward. And that peace of mind should come with, you know, being able to throw ideas off of someone who has been through it before, right? Chatting with you or I about what that post-op recovery looks like, the equipment, you know, in our orthopedic surgeries, we
like we have a pre-op consult and then they have a training session. So they actually go and sit in Alberta. They go and sit through a class and teaches them how to recover and all the things that they need to prepare, which is great. It’s a phenomenal course. I’ve taken it myself. It’s a wonderful course. And so it walks through everything. when you’re preparing for a surgery, as soon as you’ve heard that information, you promptly forget it, right? Or you focus on that one thing. You’re like, I need an ice machine.
Liz Lewington, LPN (09:55)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (10:08)
and then everything falls to the wayside, right? Yeah, brilliant. They’re brilliant things. So if you’re not hearing that information, the benefit of having an agency or just a conversation with an agency that does provide that post-operative support, I think is so valuable because we’ve done it before, hundreds of times. We can share with you that hips bleed more than knees.
Liz Lewington, LPN (10:10)
cryocuffs. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (10:35)
We can share with you that surgeons absolutely loathe it if nurses touch their bandages before they’ve been given orders to do that, right? Yeah. You know, so we know, right? And I think it’s a big surgery. It’s a life-changing surgery, most certainly a life-changing surgery where you’re going to walk out feeling phenomenal.
Liz Lewington, LPN (10:40)
I’m
Inter-provincial, for sure.
Melissa Therrien, RN (11:01)
compared to the way that you walked in. And that’s hard to believe, right? So I think there’s so many advantages in getting some post-operative support. Pain management, mobility, dressing, eyes, you know, just making sure that like, this amount of blood is okay. You’re sure? This amount? It’s on my sheets. It’s okay, you know, it’s okay. It’s totally okay. I can move around for more than five minutes or five steps. Yes.
Liz Lewington, LPN (11:12)
Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (11:30)
Like your body is gonna tell you that it’s okay, right? So all of those things to provide that reassurance, I think really decreases the stress, which less stress means quicker recovery and sending that out into the universe and planning for it, I think is great.
Liz Lewington, LPN (11:46)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then you throw in planning for things like meals, pumping up your protein intake. Post-surgical, increasing your protein intake is gonna reduce your healing time. And then like you say, listen to your body. If you’re in a lot of pain, yes, they give you pain medication for a reason, so use it then. Don’t let yourself get into an extreme pain crisis, which…
Melissa Therrien, RN (11:51)
Absolutely.
Liz Lewington, LPN (12:15)
is really difficult to recover from and get back under control. keeping your pain… Yeah, don’t do that. Yeah. I regret not having an epidural when I had a kid. So don’t follow my lead. Just take the medication when you need it. It’s there for a reason. And honor your body. Listen to it for sure. Yeah. And then…
Melissa Therrien, RN (12:19)
No one’s a hero.
Hahaha!
Yeah.
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That medication
piece too, right? Like not going through the ups and downs of pain management, you know, where I can, I can hear Jen’s voice in the back of my mind. She’ll hate me that I’m mentioning this, but like, she’ll be like, no, no, it’s too much or we’ll wait till we need it. And it’s like, no, actually with pain medication, you want to build up to that level where, you know, your pain is at a four or five. I think that’s really reasonable.
Liz Lewington, LPN (12:50)
I’m sorry.
Melissa Therrien, RN (13:06)
We don’t want anything over a five for pain on the pain scale. Those that don’t know what I’m talking about, like zero to 10, like rate your pain. 10 being the worst pain you’ve ever had in your entire life. And it is insurmountable, unmanageable pain. If that pain gets to a seven, we’re talking about hours before we can create a schedule where we’re getting that pain under control again. We want it to sit at a four or five. You’ve had surgery, it’s a real,
We’ve cut into nerves and skin and muscle and everything else. There’s going to be pain. It’s post-surgical pain, so it’s a very different pain than the aches and pains that you had in the hip or knee previously. So that may catch people off guard too. But you never want to get into those troughs of pain management where you’re chasing to try and catch up.
Liz Lewington, LPN (13:57)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then like you said with wounds, what does this look like? Is this normal? I mean, you’ve probably seen a million wounds that you’re like, Lord. So just having a nurse even look at it because the experience is there and we can say, you know what? It’s looking a little bit like this area here. There’s a little bit of…
Melissa Therrien, RN (14:09)
Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (14:21)
extra drainage, let’s take a look and see what’s going on under there if there’s any redness or swelling or heat or whatever. But laying eyes on it, it definitely decreases the anxiety and then the stress levels go down. then, you know, at least you know that you can sleep and if you wake up and there’s some more blood on the sheets, then it’s not a big deal. If we’re looking at this in a week’s time, then yeah, it’s a big deal. Or if there’s any other symptoms, that kind of thing, just to decrease the anxiety around the whole process. Because stress and anxiety, you know, it goes hand in hand with
with
surgery, nobody’s going in there with their little finger guns. Yay, this is gonna be the best day of my life. But when they come out the other end, like you say, even for a hip, you’ve been cut up. You should be in so much worse pain, but the pain that they walk out, especially the hips that we’re doing these days, it’s chef’s kiss. They come out in so much less pain.
Melissa Therrien, RN (15:05)
huge.
Liz Lewington, LPN (15:20)
even having been cut open and have their legs taken apart and put back together. Literally. It’s quite a thing to behold. So just know that you’re going to be feeling better after a hit for sure.
Melissa Therrien, RN (15:24)
From the ceiling. Yes, literally.
Liz Lewington, LPN (15:39)
doesn’t mean that that’s the only surgeries that we or a home care provider can help to support on the way home. You know, we have c-sections and we help look after the babies that are coming out of those c-sections. you know, it’s and those are, it’s beautiful moments for us and recovering from a surgery, it’s one of those rare times as a nurse that you can in real time almost see the improvement. Like you’ll come in one day and they’ll be not so great and you know, they’ll be really down on themselves and the
the next day, well, they’re eating better and their intake is up. And it’s a lovely thing to see that in a week’s time, they’re like, okay, I don’t need you anymore. Get out of my house. it’s again, chef’s kiss. I love it. Yeah. So we can help them get to their appointments and we can help them with their meals and making sure that they have their medication on hand. Because when you’re coming home, you may be nauseated, you may be in pain. You definitely do not want to go to the grocery store if you do need anything. again, plan if you can. If it’s an emergency,
Melissa Therrien, RN (16:17)
Yeah, go.
Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (16:39)
getting somebody in that can help you to navigate that return home comfort level safety as well. You know, making sure that you are not alone and have somebody that can lay eyes on the situation. Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (16:51)
So we talked about the planned surgery. Let’s talk about that crisis, be it trauma or otherwise. Let’s talk about that and what that looks like. For me, I think the greatest advantage in getting an agency involved is ensuring a safe discharge post-operatively to support you and your family, your loved ones, to kind of push the brakes a little bit on that
quick discharge from the hospital and that feeling of being unprepared. There’s something to be said of a nurse picking up the phone and saying, it’s Melissa from Ohana Care. I’m supporting so and so with their transition home. I need 24 hours to ensure that this is a safe transition so that I have the staffing in place. The team in the hospital, 95 % of the time is going to hear that.
and say thank you, we will make arrangements for discharge tomorrow. And we appreciate that communication. It’s just a matter of pumping the brakes to make sure that XYZ has been dealt with. You have that hospital bed, you have that commode chair, you have the support that is needed for overnights or whatever that looks like. But I think that might be the number one thing that
Liz Lewington, LPN (17:51)
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Therrien, RN (18:16)
I think is advantageous to have someone advocating for you and for your loved ones for that safe discharge. I say 95 % of the time, so there is a 5 % where the hospital is like, nope, we’re on overflow, they’re going home. Great. Then let’s go overkill on the care that we can provide in an urgent manner. Let’s go overkill so that we can ensure at least the safest possible transition.
Liz Lewington, LPN (18:29)
Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (18:45)
from hospital to home. Post-surgery or even just regular discharge from hospital, I think there’s some value to that as well. You just never know what to expect, right?
Liz Lewington, LPN (18:53)
Yeah, that’s good.
Yeah, so I think you’re right that overkill, know, add as much care as you can because we can taper it down at any time afterwards. But it is that sweet spot where that person is coming home post-surgical and if they don’t get hydration, they don’t get medication, you know, there’s nobody keeping an eye on what’s going on in the house. There’s a readmission and then we’re in worse shape or there’s potentially, you know, infection that isn’t being caught in time. You know, the…
Melissa Therrien, RN (19:02)
absolutely.
Liz Lewington, LPN (19:20)
especially with an urgent, emergent surgery that’s not planned, the chances of an…
it’s increased that you’re going to have an infection post-op as well, especially things like appendicitis with a rupture. Then we’re looking at high dose antibiotics, and then everyone knows what happens when you’re on high dose antibiotics. You’re running to the bathroom, and we need to make sure that you’re safe with that. So yeah, I’d say overkill at the beginning, but definitely having a nurse phone another nurse saying, you know what? We can make this discharge happen. It’s going to be smooth as butter, but I need another
Melissa Therrien, RN (19:29)
Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (19:56)
24 hours or 12 hours or can we make sure that it’s in the morning so that we can have a secondary person there for the transition into the home those kinds of moments so just again communication of course is always the key with these sorts of moments, but Reaching out to a professional can really sort of swing the the scales in in your favor as far as getting somebody home safely And that’s not just for surgical like you said that’s for any hospital discharge That you know our folks are coming across
Yeah, mean, emergent surgery is really, you can’t plan for it.
you never are going to have yourself ahead of that. So calling, if you’re a loved one, let’s say that your loved one has gone into the hospital, they’ve had a major life-changing incident or potentially a surgery that was unplanned, reaching out to us and saying, this is what’s happening. Would you be able to help me, support me with this? We have no idea when they’re coming home. We don’t know if they’re coming home, but we can help.
either smooth that transition or we can help with making sure that the hospital knows what’s on the other side of the world that they’re coming home to. So just being a translator sometimes is key.
Melissa Therrien, RN (21:11)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
yeah, and I often tell clients like, don’t worry about the discharge. Like it doesn’t really matter to me when the discharge day is, unless it’s yesterday or 15 minutes, that concerns me a little bit, but it doesn’t really matter when the discharge happens. Keep me in the loop over when they start discussing that. Like, you know, that EOD at the top of your thing have, hospitals are planning for your discharge on your admission.
That’s a topic of conversation from the day you arrive in emergency, they are planning your discharge. So when they start verbalizing that to you and your loved ones, that’s the time to let me know or to let us know so that we can start planning on our end. We understand how that works with hospitals. We know that when they start talking about that, we’ve got 24 to 48 hours to start putting things into place. For us to put staff in place to support that safe transition to home,
I can easily do that with 48 hours notice or three days notice. It’s really hard to do that with 12 hours notice or less. It’s possible, but it becomes a little bit more challenging and a little bit, know, jarring as we work through that process. But for us to cancel those services, if the discharge doesn’t happen for one reason or another, super easy. Everyone understands how hospital discharges work, things happen.
No big deal, super easy for us to cancel. So again, just to kind of heart home that let’s communicate, let’s be over prepared, let’s go overkill, let’s plan for that perfect discharge that day that they started speaking about, let’s plan for that tomorrow discharge, tomorrow evening, whatever, and we’ll adjust accordingly. But yeah, like being prepared, it’s what we do and we can be prepared in really short time, but.
Liz Lewington, LPN (23:05)
you
Melissa Therrien, RN (23:13)
keeping us in the loop is really important.
Liz Lewington, LPN (23:15)
Now, I don’t know how it looks for CDHCI. Is there anything built into CDHCI for post-surgical or is it just for…
Melissa Therrien, RN (23:27)
Yeah, no. So because the wait
is so long to get assessed and approval for the client-directed home care invoicing program, it’s really, unless you are requiring home care in advance of the surgery, it would be really hard to transition strictly for the surgery itself and for that post-op recovery.
You know home care does provide support post-operatively to people that are requiring support most often that’s really just medication assist And there’s no guarantee that that home care service, especially right now Unfortunately, there’s a backlog that that service is going to be in place on the day of your discharge there may be a three or four day delay before that service can come into place and That’s where maybe it’s advantageous for us to be in there just as a stopgap
Again, no contracts, no commitments. So if you use us for those three days until your funded home care supports come into place, that’s totally fine. We’re there to support and to create success for that transition. So yeah, it’s all about getting creative and ensuring that the services are in place regardless of who they come.
Liz Lewington, LPN (24:42)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s the same. So that is the CDHCI Client-Directed Home Care Invoicing Program that we were just talking about. It’s just in Alberta. So for BC, we don’t even have that option, aren’t we lucky?
Melissa Therrien, RN (24:52)
Yes.
Liz Lewington, LPN (24:56)
So we don’t have that but what we do have is the same thing that home support and it depends again if it’s a planned surgery there may be the ability to get that more solidified but it’s again, it’s difficult, you know, I don’t want to besmirch the system that’s out there but it is hard to confirm that it will be in place.
especially at that discharge moment when there is somebody coming home and then you do really need to have somebody that’s taking care of the medication and the meals and that sort of thing, especially in that first 48 hours minimum is what I would say to have somebody there overnights with you, that sort of thing, very important. Yeah, so choosing to go with a private company such as ours or with home support, it is
I mean, if you can manage it, I would go, if it was me, I’d go with private.
and use the home support. I mean, it would be the home care nursing component for what it’s spectacular at out here. I don’t know about there, but here, you can have a nurse come out. If you are already, you have to be a client of the Island Health already in their case management department. So if this is something that you know is coming down the pipeline, getting on case management, very important. So you can then have a nurse assigned that will follow up with your recovery.
they can actually, depending on what the orders are, because we often see staples, we don’t see sutures anymore so much, but staples, especially for these orthopedic surgeries, the
10 days approximately from date of surgery, they do need to be removed. Are they itchy? Are they growing in? Is it puckering? Is there some drainage coming out? A nurse needs to be able to assess and potentially treat or recommend treatment for that as well. So we do have nurses on staff with us.
It is a program that exists through the Alberta Health as well as through all of the 48 different health authorities in BC. yeah, so having a combination of the two is also a great thing because you do have access to additional support through government funding as well.
Melissa Therrien, RN (27:18)
point of like nurses on staff versus healthcare aides that we traditionally hire. You brought up the mention of nurses and we traditionally use healthcare aides for our typical home care supports, right?
Liz Lewington, LPN (27:25)
PASSION!
Melissa Therrien, RN (27:47)
That in itself, I think is really valuable too. You don’t necessarily need to hire a nurse post-op after your surgery. Nurses bring a completely different perspective to the scenario where that wound assessment is next level, the ability to liaise with your surgeon and your surgical team changes, of course, if it’s us calling versus you calling.
not to say that they disregard when you call, but it changes the dynamic a little bit when there is a supervising nurse that’s making that call. Making suggestions on your medication management and what that schedule looks like. I think there’s so much that a nurse can bring very early stages, pre-op, post-op, in the planning, regardless of what that looks like. I think there’s value to what a nurse can bring to the table.
Don’t get me wrong, a healthcare aide with the support of a nurse can be just as successful. Setting you up with your cryo cuff, which is a godsend for icing, 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off, you gotta do it. Getting those things set up, doing that meal prep, that light housekeeping, getting your linens changed after you’ve been sleeping and sweating in that recovery process.
Liz Lewington, LPN (28:57)
Hahaha
Melissa Therrien, RN (29:10)
I think getting you some support and changing your pajamas, getting you showered. A shower after surgery might be the best thing ever. All of those things, a healthcare aide can absolutely assist with and are the most valuable people to be able to support in that.
Liz Lewington, LPN (29:15)
Yeah
Yeah, I would.
would 100 % recommend HCA with a nurse backup, like the scenario that we work in, because HCA is like our healthcare aides, they know what to look for and what to be concerned with. And they will call us to get our perspective on it and give us their assessment. And then if needed, we can do a home visit, we can run some vitals, take a look, do a quick head to toe assessment, make sure that there’s no concerns with swelling or blood pressure or
if there’s nausea that’s uncontrolled or know bowel function is not where we need it to be you know that
Having having a trained registered healthcare aid is phenomenal because they really do have that eye that triggers us to go in and make sure that yes, this is what’s happening and then just listening to yourself if you are yourself recovering and you have you know, you have concerns or anxieties it can you know, it can be an Indicator that there is actually something wrong with you if you are feeling anxious or you know, your heart rate is elevated that sort of thing that can
trigger that anxiety sensation. So knowing that you can call if you’re not feeling well and there’s something going on, you can call for help as well. And just honoring yourself. So making sure that you are not minimizing your experience. If you’re in pain, don’t say you’re not in pain because there’s a lot of folks, you know, that people are scared of pain medication.
Melissa Therrien, RN (31:01)
I that.
Liz Lewington, LPN (31:06)
And there’s justification in that and some people will use that as their reason to not.
properly use it, which means that we’re then at a, you know, increased risk of prolonging their recovery because they’re in too much pain to function. So you do have to meet in that sweet spot. Like you say, you want to have some pain. You want your body to know that it’s been through something so that you can not push yourself, but you still need to be able to get out of your bed, do your physio exercises, because that’s going to really help with building up the muscle, regaining. There’s some balance that can be lost when you have one limb
that is operating different than the other and your brain’s not used to it. So doing those physio exercises as much as you can and following that plan, it really is important for that speedy recovery.
Melissa Therrien, RN (31:43)
Hmm.
And complications like depression or, you know, we talk about anxiety and stress and what those psychological things can create. And sometimes the reassurance, talking through, having that checkpoint with people outside of your family or your loved ones can also be really valuable where maybe we’re not needing to involve a physician right off the bat.
But just being there to say, looks good, everything looks great, your icing looks great, know, great. We can do that virtually. We can do that in person. I’ve been to many, many houses post-operatively just to provide that reassurance. So yeah, I mean, all of those things are real and can be scary and having a professional that can come out and support you, very helpful.
Liz Lewington, LPN (32:52)
Yeah. Now, anything that you wanted to add, you know, we could seriously talk about this for way longer than people would be willing to talk about this or hear us talk about this. Is there any areas that you think we need to really touch on to make sure that people, you know, are getting the most out of this?
Melissa Therrien, RN (33:04)
Yeah.
I think the education piece, so I think that the way we have it in Alberta is phenomenal. I mean, you can, you go to your pre-op, provided it’s a plant surgery, you go to your pre-op education, you’re the only one that’s attended that pre-op education. So I think the other piece of it is how do we support the family members that are supporting you post-operatively in ensuring that their stress and anxiety isn’t playing into your recovery as well, right?
We all know that there’s a, I don’t want to call them helicopter moms, but someone who’s overseeing everything and making sure that everything, all the check boxes have been completed and everything is done and wants to make sure in preparation of the micromanager, let’s say. So we were happy to support that person too. I think to a previous client that we have had where
I spoke to numerous people in their support group to provide them the reassurance that the support that we were going to provide was going to be enough and that the support that they were willing to provide was also a benefit and that we could work them into the care plan and the support and recovery progress. you know, we’re happy to talk to anybody and to encourage the people around you to be involved if you want them involved.
and support them in that.
Liz Lewington, LPN (34:41)
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, it’s just it is all about creating like we all like I always I was bang on about this safety net. having that safety net.
Melissa Therrien, RN (34:49)
Mm-hmm.
Liz Lewington, LPN (34:49)
below you. So if something changes, you’ve got someone that you can rely on. You know, this, we only have one body. Although Elon Musk might be working on something, so stay tuned. But you know, we only have one body, so we do need to look after it as well as we can. And those moments where our health has taken a hit and we’ve had a surgery and, and, and we’re recovering, those are the moments when you can actually have a, you know, not an
Melissa Therrien, RN (34:58)
Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (35:16)
a non-adventages outcome that can affect your ongoing health. So let’s make sure that your recovery is going to be a place where you can pivot and move forward from than a place that is a reason that you’ve had your life changed moving forward. more help, the better is what I would recommend to anybody. Just take more help. Yeah, at the beginning. I have said that three times. Yeah, yeah, take it when you can. Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (35:40)
prepare for what you can. Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (35:44)
I’ve said that
Melissa Therrien, RN (35:44)
Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (35:44)
three times and I think that’s probably me saying, I’ve had enough and everybody going, good Lord woman, please, I beg of you, stop talking. But yeah, always reach out. Always reach out.
Melissa Therrien, RN (35:57)
Yeah.
Pool your resources, my motto for sure. Yeah, well, Liz, thank you very much. Like I said, this was a topic that’s a little bit different from our usual, you know, our usual go-to, but I think it’s an important one and definitely something, you know, that is part of our business, providing in-home support for people who are recovering from surgeries, elective surgeries, big surgeries, little surgeries, children’s surgeries.
Liz Lewington, LPN (36:01)
Yeah, there you go.
Melissa Therrien, RN (36:25)
senior surgery doesn’t matter. We have the experience to support and we’ll pool our resources to ensure that that is a safe transition and that your recovery is as seamless as possible. So that’s it for today. Thank you so much, Liz, for sharing your expertise with us. And like always, if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further with us, please don’t hesitate to reach out. And yeah, like and subscribe.
Liz Lewington, LPN (36:40)
And that’s
Melissa Therrien, RN (36:54)
And I look forward to chatting with you all on our next episode.
Liz Lewington, LPN (36:59)
Yeah, thanks so much, Melissa.
Melissa Therrien, RN (37:01)
All right, take care, Liz.
Liz Lewington, LPN (37:02)
Bye.
