CHECKLIST

I named this post "checklist" because there were a lot of things I wish I had known prior to my surgery. I am sharing a list of things to think about, it's a long list, and you may not need all of these things but I hope some of them help you plan proactively, instead of reactively like I did. Keep in mind this advice is coming from a 42 year old woman, so you might want to modify some of it if you are a guy, but keep reading, most of it doesn't discriminate :)


1) Bathing and Dressing -

• Prior to surgery, buy yourself a bath seat (shower chair) and a handheld showerhead. Trust me on this, you'll need both.



• I was unable to bathe myself for the first few weeks , so a home health worker came over and helped give me baths. I still ended up getting a skin infection called folliculits because she would come over and help me clean up and get dressed once a day, which left me wearing the same clothing for 24 hours until she came back the next day. Wearing too much clothing causes you to sweat and of course sitting in the same position all day every day doesn't help, so I was instructed by the doctor to just wear a loose night gown with no underwear for the first couple of weeks to prevent this from happening again and also to try to give myself a little sponge bath with baby wipes or a wash cloth and antibacterial (Dial) soap once or twice a day in addition to the showers I was getting. This helped a lot and I felt a lot better when I started doing that. I obviously couldn't reach a lot of my body but did what I could and it helped. The home health worker is a great idea even if you don't want someone bathing you, they will help you do laundry, tidy up, bathe, get dressed, fix food, etc. Trust me, if you live alone you'll want the help, don't burn out your family and friends in the first few weeks because you are going to need their help for a long time after!! Have your doctor write a prescription for it and your health insurance should cover it, just make sure you go with a company in your network, I made a mistake and ended up with out of network, which ended up costing me more money but insurance still paid 70%.
  



• As far as clothing is concerned, I cut the left strap on a few of my sports bras and stepped into them and just had the strap over my good shoulder. As for shirts, buy a few large loose/stretchy shirts and put on your bad arm first then put your head through the hole and then the good arm goes through last. The other option that I tried on week one out of the hospital and prior to my surgery was cutting the shirt from neckhole to sleeve on the bad arm and stepping into it and just having the shirt on the good shoulder side.



• Buy elastic waist bottoms, it will be a while before you are allowed to rotate your arm internally in order to zip and button pants.



• For girls, sleeveless stretchy sundresses and nightgowns are the best!

2) Slings - buy a couple extra slings.

• My favorite was the sling from CVS, it was made of a soft cotton with mesh and padding at the wrist, as well as a cell phone pocket on the inside of the sling. These slings are easy to throw in the washer so you can wear a fresh sling each day.



• I did find that the neckt strap on all the slings were painful so I bought a seatbelt pad (just a few bucks at the auto store) to put on the sling strap. It was a bit bulky and stiff at first but I was able to have someone work it out, wash and dry it, and then it helped a lot, the extra padding was great. I would also sometimes just take a washcloth and wrap it around the velcro area on the strap so it wouldn't rub against my skin.

3) Washcloths -

• I bought a couple packages of baby washcloths, the thin really soft kind. I used them every day to tuck underneath my underarm to absorb the sweat and keep me dry. It took me a while to figure out that I could rub deodorant directly on the washcloth, then tuck it under my arm and I felt so much fresher. The last thing you want is skin on skin contact for a period of time, so do this and you'll be happy. I am 3 1/2 months post op now and never once got any kind of skin rash under my arm. :)

4) Sleeping - This is a big deal. The doctor casually told me that "most patients sleep sitting up for about 2 months". This is no joke, I "slept" sitting up for at least that amount of time.

• The first few weeks was straight up in a chair


• After a few weeks I moved to the couch and was able to pile pillows on one side of me, and just lean to the good side.


• After about 6 weeks I moved to a bed and piled pillows in the corner so I had support on both sides. Still sleeping upright, but much more comfortable.


• about 2 1/2 months I was finally sleeping laying down, but only on my good side and a little on my back.
  


• At 3 months I am still unable to sleep on my "bad" side.

5) Pillows - I bought a lot of pillows, hard ones, soft ones, one called a "boomerang" pillow. You'll need all kinds. I have a very soft down pillow to support my sore arm. The hard ones you'll need to stack and support softer pillows and the boomerang pillow was a life saver when I finally moved into the bed, it is shaped like an L and it's nice because it doesn't slip and slide.

6) Medicine - I was on A LOT of pain meds for the first few weeks. I bought myself a pill case and labled each section for a 3 hour time period, my father filled the pill case with the pills I needed for each time, and I was glad he did because I was so loopy that sometimes I couldn't remember if I took my pills for not. It's good to have someone else monitoring your meds.

A couple of friendly reminders:

• Any medication with Acetaminophen in it can be deadly if you take too much - my Vicodin had 750 mg of acetaminophen in each pill, and if you take 4000 mg in a 24 hour period your liver can die (some say only 3000 mg) but the instructions told me to take 1-2 pills every 6 hours as needed. If I had taken 2 pills ever 4 hours I would have been taking 6000 mg in a 24 hr period and I may not be here. Read the fine print on your meds!!
  


• Oxycodone caused me really uncomfortable constipation, if you are taking this add Mirolax to your daily list of things to take to keep you normal. You'll be glad you did!

7) Family and Friends - ASK THEM FOR HELP!!

• Don't be shy, when your friends ask if you need anything, tell them! I have a friend who comes over once a week (still at 3 months post op) to help me change my sheets and shave my underarm! In the beginning I was really careful not to put people out, and then at about week 3 I was calling all my friends and asking them to just come get me out of the house, to take me to dinner, or to the drugstore for something. I just needed them to help me feel like myself again.