You may feel sore, weak and depressed right after your bariatric surgery. Special exercises will help you regain your physical and mental balance. We advise how to exercise in the hospital to speed up the regeneration of the body and prevent postoperative complications.
Bariatric surgery , i.e. surgical treatment of obesity in patients with 2nd degree obesity and comorbidities (e.g. type 2 diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis) and obesity III degree, i.e. giant is performed using two methods. Both operations are performed under full general anesthesia. The first is the so-called classic surgery, i.e. laparotomy. To get to the stomach and digestive system and then modify them accordingly, the surgeon makes a full incision through the abdominal wall, from the sternum to the navel.
Classic bariatric surgeries are performed very rarely. Most often, laparoscopy is used for bariatric procedures. This technique consists in making three small incisions in the abdominal wall, through which the surgeon introduces special guides, i.e. trocars, and places surgical instruments in them.
Regardless of the technique, the iron rule is that the patient should stay in bed as short as possible after the surgery. It is important to avoid cardiovascular or respiratory complications (thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia) caused by prolonged immobilization. Every movement of the body in a sitting or upright position causes the muscles of the abdomen and torso to tighten. Thanks to this, the content oozing from the postoperative wound goes directly to the drain (redon) faster and the wound simply heals faster. Thanks to exercise, the body itself is also more oxygenated and regenerates better. In order to speed up these processes, the patient, right after the bariatric surgery, must perform appropriate exercises while still in the hospital, which include the fastest possible upright positioning of the body, respiratory gymnastics and anticoagulant exercises.
Standing exercises
If there are no complications and you feel well, after laparoscopy in 2-3 hours, and after laparotomy, usually on the second day after waking up from general anesthesia, you will undergo the so-called upright standing. This process consists of stages:
- sitting onthe bed with the legs placed on the bed with the back slightly propped
- sitting on the bed with your legs lowered - lying down, turn to the side on the side where you want to lower your legs, and then leaning on one hand and holding your belly with the other, raise to a sitting position while letting your legs off the bed
It is recommended to sit down by turning to the side for 1-2 months after the surgery to prevent the formation of a hernia and overload of the spine.
- getting out of bed to full upright position
- taking a few steps around the bed and / or to the bathroom, toilet
- a few hours after waking up - longer walks around the sick room and corridor; not lying in bed flat, but with your back raised
Remember not to do the standing exercises too suddenly and quickly. Take a moment to rest after each stage. Allow the body to adapt to the new position. You may feel dizzy, have spots in front of your eyes, and your legs feel like cotton wool. Do not be afraid of them, because it is a natural so-called orthostatic disorders that may occur in the first hours after surgery.
ImportantPatients after laparotomyshould be upright in the so-calledsurgical belt . It is a special, stiffening belt that protects the postoperative wound and the sutures on it so that they do not come apart during movement. You can buy it at the rehabilitation equipment store and the so-called auxiliary agents. Doctors sometimes recommend that a patient in this belt should sleep and carry out daily activities for about 4 weeks after returning home.
Breathing exercises
After the classic surgery, you will have a pain in the surgical wound and the entire abdomen. After laparoscopy, you will feel pain mainly in the chest and solar plexus, radiating to the left shoulder and sometimes to the shoulder blade and hand. During the procedure, when the surgeon fills the abdominal cavity with carbon dioxide to expose all organs and have easier access to them, the diaphragm moves towards the lungs and sometimes irritates the phrenic nerve, causing just such discomfort. The pain is not that great, but it can last for several hours. In order not to feel it, you will be subconsciously breathing slower and more shallow. And right now it is necessary to breathe "full breast" so that the diaphragm returns to its place and the gas is released from the body faster. By breathing deeper, you will also provide your body with more oxygen, accelerating its regeneration after surgery.
Breathing exercises after bariatric surgery:
- Exercise with resistance : on your own with a bottle - fill the bottle tohalf with water and exhale through the wood, causing the water to gurgling; with a physiotherapist or breathing trainer, with a special device with 3 balls for deep breathing training - when exhaling into it, you need to lift and hold the balls up.
- Movement exercise : sit on the bed with your legs down and your hands clasped in your lap, then, inhaling deeply through your nose, raise your arms up, then exhale through your mouth and lower your hands.
You will have a drain connected to the postoperative wound and a container to collect blood and other secretions. It is used to cleanse wounds from the natural blood clots that form after surgery. In order to speed up the healing of postoperative wounds, stimulate blood to circulate faster in the abdominal area and prevent hematomas from forming, your surgeon will advise you to walk a lot.
Anticoagulant exercise
Anticoagulation exercises after bariatric surgery are exercises for the lower limbs, because it is in the calves that blood clots most often form, which can clog a blood vessel, or detach, dislocate and cause a pulmonary embolism.
Anticoagulation exercise after bariatric surgery:
- sit on a bed or a chair with straight legs, then alternately bend and straighten one leg at the knee joint, then the other.
Perform all breathing and anticoagulant exercises to the so-called the limit of discomfort. Stop them if you feel pain, fatigue, dizziness, "spots" in front of your eyes. Return to them after a short rest. Report all symptoms to your doctor to make sure that the regeneration process after the surgery is going well.
ImportantPoradnikzdrowie.pl supports safe treatment and a dignified life of people suffering from obesity. This article does not contain discriminatory and stigmatizing content of people suffering from obesity.
About the author
Magdalena Gajda A specialist in obesity disease and obesity discrimination of people with diseases. President of the OD-WAGA Foundation of People with Obesity, Social Ombudsman for the Rights of People with Obesity in Poland and a representative of Poland in the European Coalition for People Living with Obesity. By profession - a journalist specializing in he alth issues, as well as a PR, social communication, storytelling and CSR specialist. Privately - obesity since childhood, after bariatric surgery in 2010. Starting weight - 136 kg, current weight - 78 kg.