Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Questions to ask before you leave a hospital

There are many things that you need to know when you leave a hospital after a surgery. I ran into this first hand last week after my dad has a heart attack and then an angioplasty and my mom took him from the hospital with almost no information.

That kind of thing should never happen.

I speak of all this not just a fitness guy, but as someone that has had to eal with a sick daughter with kidnet disease, as well as a very jarring situation with my dad having a heart attack and angioplasty just a few weeks back. Sometimes we get fantastic information from the doctors, nurnses and other health care staff, sometimes not. Most importantly though we need to be very careful with the way that we take in information. sometimes we miss details given to us and sometimes the health care professionals think that we are aware of certain things when in fact we are not.

First of all the hospital staff including nurses, doctors and other health care workers have a head full of knowledge that you just have to ask the right questions to the right people.

Right after leaving the hospital

doctorsRight after you leave the hospital what do you need to know. Are there any special instructions for that first night?
Are there any medications needed? Some medication may need to be taken that first day but some many can wait.

Are there any dietary restrictions? How about water and food intake over the first 24 hours. Often there are water restirctions or a need for water and fasting or not.

How about baths, heat or ice packs? Are these needed, can you pick them up on the way home from the hospital or wait?

The initial day home from a hospital can be difficult so it is important to know what distractions you can get rid of. The last thing you want to do in those first 24 hours is to be running out to the store to buy things, fill prescriptions, get food, or any other things that can just wait a day.

After 24 hours – Through the first week out of the hospital

As any kind of caregiver you need to make sure that you are very clear on the situation above. You need to know things like dietary restrictions going forward, water and liquids, and then all the crazy things that certain surgeries can bring on. You may need to have multiple medications to track and exercise considerations.

As far as medications. How many and how often. It is important to have a schedule of exactly what has to be taken when and any interactions between the medications. You can get this information from a pharmacist or the doctor and in these cases do not trust your memory. Write everything down. Another problem with medications is the side effects.

Make sure that you know what the side effects can be and what to watch out for. Most people do not show side effects but really the fact is that you will be dealing with medications that are not common to you or your patient so you need to be aware if there is an allergy or side effect showing up.

Finally, as far as I am concerned, most medications are for acute symptoms. Right after a trauma or a surgery you need to take a few things like pain killers, blood thinners, anticoagulants, and anti-inflammatories that you should be able to drop once healing has taken place. Please under no circumstances should you make these decisions on your own, but instead consult with the doctors and other staff that you have access to so that the decisions are not going to set you any steps back in the recovery process.

Food, Drink, and Exercise. What you take in an what you do in the days after surgery and recovering from these often has a bigger effect on the outcome and recovery than anyone really suspects. The fact is that your body will heal with what you eat and drink and what you do for exercise is really important.

Critical changes to your diet and exercise are important if you want to heal or support those healing so be sure to be very aware of what is prescribed for in the area of food and restrictions for foods or other things like sodium. Also after a stay in the hospital it can be very difficult to get a lot of exercise but exercise is critical to recovery. In my dads case after his heart attack we of course had no idea how much exercise a moderately physical guy should get afterwards so it is important to talk to the doctor and nurses to see what they have to say.

Permanent changes are often needed after hospital stays. A car accident, heart attack, or other major life event is just that, a major life event and may mean that you have to make permanent changes. You have to look at diet, exercise, ongoing health care, and even lifelong habits may need to change.

Questions to ask before you leave a hospital, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

Related Posts

Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on Fitness
Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Best Ways to Quit Smoking


Best Ways to Quit Smoking

Best Ways to Quit Smoking

Best ways to quit smoking are what lots of people are looking for when quitting. There are many ways to quit smoking but regardless of your reasons you will need to either quit by tapering off or quiting cold turkey.

There is of course a good strategy for both of these methods of quiting smoking. And I would like to flesh out these two methods to quit smoking and then I will let you decide which is best with my bit of ideas.

Best Ways to Quit Smoking

So If you want to know the best ways to quit smoking and want to try tapering off to quit smoking here is how to do it. First take a day and answer a few questions. When do you smoke? How many cigarrettes do you smoke in the morning? In the afternoon? In the evening? When do you have a real urge to smoke? Now that you have this list you need a plan. You want to start your first day with a victory so you will plan the first day cutting down by not feeling guilty about smoking but instead smoking when you really need it. Make a goal of how many smokes you will have that first day and then you can go to bed on that first night knowing that you did well.

Every day after this you wnat a goal and you will start to need a way to cope with not smoking during the days and nights that you really have a nic fit and an urge to smoke. Eventually you will be down to just 5 cigarettes or so a day and one day you will have to make that leap to being a non smoker.

Best Ways to Quit Smoking – Cold Turkey

The other of the best ways to quit smoking is to just quit cold turkey. To quit cold turkey you need to do the same as above. You will start with one day where you just smoke as usual and write down when you smoke and why. What are your triggers and when are you times that you really struggle and feel the stress of needing to smoke.

Once you have figured this out you set a date and get rid of all of those smoking paraphernalia. You need to get rid of all cigarettes, ashtrays, lighters, actually anything that reminds you of smoking or makes you more comfortable to smoke. Also it is important to stay away from smoking situations like bars, smoking restaurants and in those smoking spots that we all see and look for when we look for a place to smoke.

On that first day without tabacco, cigarettes and nicotine expect to have conflicting emotions about your decision to quit. Quitting is hard but if you give yourself the chance you will be able to quit smoking easily enough and after just a few weeks you will have the confidence to not think of yourself as a smoker anymore and then you will really be a non-smoker.

If you want to know a product or two I have also written a page on the best way to stop smoking as well with some things that will make the struggle easier.

So what is the best way to quit smoking? I have tried a few times and was always unsuccessful but finally I stopped smoking by going cold turkey and have now been quit for 12 years. Realistically, as you may have figured out the best ways to quit smoking are really to quit the best and most convenient way for your lifestyle.

Related Blogs

  • Related Blogs on Best Ways To Quit Smoking