Going into an operation, the surgeon likely preps you with what will happen and the day-of procedure. But what about after the surgery?
If this is your first surgery, here are three things you should know:
- No surgery is the same so try not to compare your recovery to someone else’s
- Ask the surgeon and physio to find out any restrictions you will need to consider for the immediate post-op phase
- Find a physio who has treated your injury and surgery before to get individualized guidance for returning to exercise gradually
If it’s a musculoskeletal-related surgery – so this could be anything from back, spine, joints, ligaments, and bone – a physiotherapist is often the first person you will see after your operation. I’m biased because I am a physio, but I think that everyone should see a physio post-operation! We’re trained to help guide you through the post-op protocols and understand the restrictions your surgeon might have given you, all while increasing your mobility and function.
No single surgery will be the same even if it is for the same injury.
This especially applies to ACLR surgeries since each injury can include (or not include) other injuries like meniscus tears, collateral ligament injuries, bone damage or fractures, different graft types, lateral extra-articular tenodesis procedure and the surgeon themselves!
Now if we broaden this to all types of surgeries, you can see where the commonalities start to fade. My ankle fracture surgery was very differrent to my ACL reconstruction surgery which was very different from my sister’s jaw surgery.
The main thing to take note is that each event can be impactful and life-changing.
My sister and I are related but had very different approaches to our surgeries. Rachel is much more comfortable without as much information in terms of the surgery and the recovery process, whereas I like to have more information and a plan going into the surgery and for coming out of the surgery. Watch the full interview.
For Rachel’s jaw surgery, here was her initial take:
RF: So it was like my first recovery from anything. I’ve literally I’ve never really been to the hospital [for an injury]. I didn’t know anything. So it was an experience, and I didn’t prepare for it. I didn’t think about the recovery afterwards.
It wasn’t my leg or my arm, my whole body worked totally fine. It was just my head, and so I didn’t think about the recovery and how that looks with working out because I’ve never had an injury recovery. So I had double jaw surgery in November [2020] and then, obviously, there’s a recovery period, but I didn’t seek professional help. I did not go to a physio.
The advice from the doctor was 6 weeks where you can’t do anything strenuous because of just the blood pressure in your head.
My advice (as a physiotherapist):
- Find out ahead of time what you can and cannot do for the first 1-2 weeks right after your surgery
- You likely won’t be feeling super amazing the first few hours so if the surgeon or physio at the hospital has a handout they can give you, ask for it!
- Depending on your injury and surgery there may be certain restrictions or movements (like strenous exercise for Rachel) that the surgeon will want you to avoid
When Rachel did go back to exercising post-surgery, this was her experience:
RF: When I was actually getting back into actual exercise because they [the doctors] said you have to be careful because you can’t have extra pressure. So if you’re lifting, you don’t want to clench your teeth and you don’t want to have that pressure in your head. And so anything that was even if you breathe hard – you don’t realize how much pressure is in your head when you’re working out until you can feel it. And it feels like your head’s gonna explode, and you’re like, oh, maybe I shouldn’t be doing that.
The recovery back into exercise after my jaw surgery was much longer and much more difficult than pregnancy and giving birth was, just because of the extents of surgery of having plates and stuff into my face.
The hardest part was not even knowing what the limit was because it’s really just what your head feels like. The doctors are like, ‘you’re good.’ The running was hard because of the impact, and lifting was hard because I didn’t know how much I could lift, because I didn’t want to put that extra pressure.
I’m a very careful kind of person, and so I didn’t want to push my body any further. And so it took me much longer to get back into it than it probably could have because it’s very uncomfortable when your head is hurting.
My advice as a physiotherapist for getting back into exercise after surgery:
My physiotherapist bias is to ask a health professional for help with the gradual return. Sometimes doctors and surgeons don’t have the time or the rehabilitation knowledge to educate thoroughly on this, which is ok, it’s not their job to do that. Hence, why a physiotherapist is likely key for rehabilitation.
Even a year after jaw surgery, Rachel still felt like she could see a physiotherapist for help with late stage rehab and range of motion:
RF: I probably could still go to a physio now to work on the strength of not that you’re not that you even think about the muscles of your jaw, but I feel like it would probably still be good to like work on like even just go for an assessment of the like movement strength that I have or don’t have.
Watch the full interview
In this 15 minute interview, Rachel and I discuss our various experiences with surgery. I have had an ankle surgery and an anterior crutciate ligament reconstruction surgery (ACLR). My sister has had double jaw surgery for dental reasons. We discuss getting back into exercise afterwards, and preparation for surgery.
