^^^Overlander wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2024 11:41 pm Getting up and moving is best for almost every major surgery.
The evolution of the post-operative period, from women lying in bed for 3 or 4 days after childbirth to people with every other type of joint (hip & knee) replacement as well as major abdominal and now even open heart surgery and transplants, is gobsmacking.
We get so de-conditioned-lose fitness and muscle tone, so much faster than we used to know, that when you do wait to get people up several days later, they're already so relatively weak they can barely support themselves, and take longer to recover than if you don't.
Moving helps your bowels move. Your intestines "go to sleep" after general anesthesia. Being upright helps your lungs drain and helps avoid fluid accumulation and the development of pneumonia. Contracting the muscles in your legs helps keeps the blood moving back to your heart to help avoid blood clots, and helps keep you from accumulating fluid in your feet and legs.
The list of advantages to getting up and moving verses lying flat and doing nothing for several days is long.