Surgery and Post Surgery

Making the Decision to Have Elective Surgery:

Ask your surgeon:

How will the surgery improve my quality of life and/or my chances for survival?
Are there other treatments that might be used instead of surgery?
What are the risks with this kind of surgery?
What percentage of the operations performed of this type are successful?
How many of these operations have you performed and what were the outcomes?
What physical changes can I expect from this operation?
What improvements can I expect?
How long will it take for me to recover?
When can I exercise again?
What are the costs involved?

If you decide to go ahead with the surgery, based on the answers you receive, here are some things to do to prepare yourself and help with healing afterwards:

To stabilize your intestinal tract and protect against antibiotics used (that kill the good digestive bacteria), take acidophilus or multidophilus 3 times a day as directed on the label. Instead, you can eat a cup of plain yogurt with active cultures 2-3 times a day to replace the digestive bacteria in your intestines. If you’re allergic or lactose intolerant, get the non-dairy multidophilus.
Ingest essential fatty acids by eating ocean salmon, chunk white tuna, or mackerel for three days prior to surgery. Instead, you can take primrose oil or salmon oil capsules; follow the label. This will help heal your tissues.
Take 2-3 garlic capsules 3 times a day. This is a natural antibiotic that enhances your immune function.
Donate your own blood if you will need a transfusion; this eliminates any risk of donated blood.
Take the amino acid, L-cystine, 500 mg twice a day to speed wound healing.
Take the amino acid, L-lysine, 500 mg daily to speed wound healing. Only take for 6 months at a time. Rotate with L-Glutamine, 600 mg 3 times daily and at bedtime. In studies in which L-Glutamine was added to IV fluids, muscle breakdown rates after surgery were greatly reduced.
Take a multivitamin complex and multimineral as directed on the label.
Drink rose hips tea. It provide vitamin C and enhances healing.
Take milk thistle (silymarin) daily to protect your liver from toxic buildup from drugs, chemicals and anesthesia resulting from surgical procedures. Follow the direction on the label. This herb has few if any side effects and is very safe. It also helps with pain, fatigue and sleep.
Take burdock root capsules after surgery to reduce itching and pain and aid in skin healing.
Avoid taking vitamin E supplements, aspirin, white willow and all supplements that thin the blood prior to surgery.
White willow is excellent for pain and sleep and is safer than taking aspirin. Vitamin E after surgery can help with circulation that assists in healing.
Add fiber to your diet. Eat whole grain cereals, breads, and pastas, brown rice, fresh fruits and vegetables, including the skins to add fiber. If you are constipated, you can put 1 teaspoon of psyllium husks to a glass of water, stir and drink before it gels. Doing this daily at bedtime or at a time at least one hour prior to or after eating or taking supplements will clean your colon and restore healthy elimination. If you like, you can also drink ½ glass of Aloe Vera juice or gel in the morning and before bedtime. You can take a bottle of this to the hospital. It needs no refrigeration and also helps calm stomach upset.
Ask your surgeon if it’s okay to bring a healing tape with you into surgery. Research has shown this can help you have fewer complications after surgery. Listen to the tape prior to and after surgery to reduce your stress level and assist with healing. Find the tape you want by searching online.
Have a massage prior to and after surgery to increase relaxation, digestion and circulation.
Unless you’re on fluid restriction, drink at least 8 cups of water (distilled or reverse osmosis) to aid with removing toxins from your body.
Drink 1-2 cups of gota kolu tea to speed healing.
Starting one week after surgery, take grape-seed extract, 50 milligrams 3 times a day until healing is complete. This supplement will stimulate collagen, key to proper scar formation.
Take astragalus to help you heal, 500 milligrams 3 times a day, unless you have a fever or infection.
If you’re not hungry, have a plain yogurt, banana, frozen strawberry, pineapple juice drink. If lactose intolerant, use soy protein powder. Right after surgery, eat 5-7 small meals so you don’t overwhelm your body with food. (This is a good policy at other times too and will help you lose weight and have more energy.)
Another healing food is potato peeling broth: scrub 8 potatoes well and cut out any eyes, cut off the peelings and save the potatoes for another meal. Place the potato peelings, 1 sliced carrot, 1 sliced celery stalk in a large pot and cover with distilled or reverse osmosed water. Add 1 sliced onion and 1-3 cloves of garlic to taste and boil for 30 minutes. Cool the broth and eat. If you are nauseous, strain out the vegetables and just sip the broth.
Avoid processed foods (ice cream, frozen yogurt, canned and frozen foods, cakes, pies, candy, French fries, hamburgers, etc.).
If you’re having trouble with appetite, puree foods in the blender such as bananas, apples, and whatever that’s healthy that appeals to you.