After surgery
After the operation, you will stay in the recovery room for 1-2 hours. Common post-operative discomforts are pain, nausea, fatigue and thirst. The level of the pain depends on the complexity of the operation, the size of the wound and the individual pain threshold. There is no need to suffer pain, we encourage you to inform the recovery ward nurse of your discomforts. The nurse will provide you medicines to relieve both pain and nausea.
From the recovery room, you will move to the surgical ward, where you will stay for 2-3 hours. When you arrive at the ward, we will offer you a light meal and you can safely recover under the supervision of our staff. When you leave the hospital, you will receive instructions for home treatment and wound care.
We recommend moderate physical activity on the day of surgery. This speeds up recovery from surgery and reduces the risk of complications.
You are not allowed to drive a motor vehicle within 24 hours after general anesthesia, as your reaction speed has slowed down. Therefore, we kindly ask you to invite a family member or a friend to pick you up from the clinic or use a taxi.
At home
Some exhaustion and pain after surgery is to be expected. We recommend moving around as much as possible. You should shower 24 hours after the operation (if wound strips are on the wound, leave them on and gently pat dry after the shower with clean gauze!). Many patients return to non-physical work in 1-2 days. We recommend waiting 2 weeks before going to the sauna, swimming or having a bath.
We recommend you resume physical work and muscle training after 3 weeks from the surgery.
Wound dressings should be changed daily on three first postoperative days, after that, usually no dressing is needed. We recommend dressing the wound after showering. The sutures are absorbable and intradermal and here is no need to remove them. More detailed recommendations for wound care will be given to you after surgery when leaving the hospital.
Moderate physical activity contributes to the body’s recovery and reduces the risk of complications.
NB! After cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder), we also provide nutritional recommendations.
NB! After thyroid surgery, observe the surgical wound and the neck area. If it swells and/or hardens, it may indicate bleeding from the surgical wound. In this case, call an ambulance or have a family member take you to the nearest emergency ward to rule out bleeding and need for intervention. A hematoma inside the wound can compress the trachea and cause suffocation.
If you have any questions, please contact us!