How long after surgery did you need....

I was much more impaired than most people going into surgery, so I already needed a fair amount of help. But if I try to compare the kind of "every day" help to the "postop" help, I think ten days to two weeks would have been about right.

However, when I had my hernia repair/"tummy tuck" procedure, I only needed minimal help for a couple of days, and that was a HUGE operation, too.

I just had my open surgery almost 3 weeks ago, my husband was home with me for the first week. As long as everything goes well I think a week is perfect.

Tana

I had my surgery open and I didn't really need a lot of help for me. The help I needed was primarily for taking care of my toddler. I was mostly able to care for myself after I got out of the hospital. It helps to prepare as much as you can pre-op.

 Beth,
I'm 49 and 6 days post-op. My personal experience is that I would not have been comfortable being alone the first day or two that I came home. It was so nice just to have someone there as I attempted things for the first time. And of course, I worry about crazy things like I might slip and fall or rip a suture or something, and I just felt less vulnerable knowing I had immediate help available.  Best wishes for a smooth surgery and a boring recovery. 

It really is an individual experience.  I had my DS lap but apparently had some muscle injury in my lower back from laying still on the table (or at least that's what's the physical therapist said) and I could hardly move for almost a month because of the muscle spasm and pain.  Sitting down and standing up were incredibly painful and I was in so much pain the doctors literally were unable to manipulate the muscle to see the extent of the injury.  Apparently it is a fairly common occurrence during surgeries (again according to the physical therapist I had to see for 6 weeks when I could finally move again relatively pain free about 2 months after surgery).  My DS healed wonderfully though.

Related strictly to the DS I would say I needed some extra help maybe about a week after surgery because I couldn't drive while taking pain pills and stretching tugged and hurt my incisions some.  And my bed is pretty high off the ground so I needed help in and out of bed!

With the muscle issue obviously I needed help for a greater period of time but luckily my Mom flew up from Florida for a week and a half, my boyfriend at the time was moved in to help, and my kids were awesome about helping Mom out (I couldn't even cover myself up with a blanket- I was pathetic!).

I really hope you have a smooth and easy recovery!

Lisa

At the risk of sounding like a real wimp, I found I needed help for at least 2 weeks.  That said, I was supposed to have a lap, but it was converted to open while I was on the table.  I ended up going home 2 days after the surgery, but found that I was really uncomfortable and really needed help.  This could also have to do with being a person that doesn't tolerate pain well, and wasn't given any good drugs for the time at home.  I was given vicoden, but it made me scared when I was sleeping (a typical reaction), and the doctors protocol was not to give me anything but tylenol thereafter.  I'm only mentioning this (not to scare you, b/c if you can do 2 C-sections, you likely don't have the wimpy issue I do!) -- I'm saying this for those lurkers out there (of which I was one) who may be curious about another perspective.

What may help (for you or anyone) in the future:  (1) get liquid meds (not ones you have to crush up) --  I didn't know to ask for them until I was home and complaining and found out on this board

(2) if you do ever have to do open, order a hospital bed for when you go home.  That was a relatively inexpensive thing for me (about 300 for the month) and it really gave me a lot of comfort -- I could NOT sleep in my bed OR the recliner.  And once I had that (and percocet) life felt a lot better.

Good luck!