My surgery date is fast approaching, March 17th and I am starting to get nervous! I was wondering, what are some must have items that you really depended on or could not live without during your recovery after surgery?

In the hosptial--sweats, toothbrush, chapstick.

At home--decaf. tea and popsicles were helpful. Also some Crystal Light--regular Water is hard to take in.

Stock up on Protein shake samples! You taste changes after surgery and what you like now, you may not like so much afterwards. Also, You may want to get some soft things like yogurt, cottage cheese, creamed Soups (not chunky). I think I lived on String cheese and eggs for awhile, lol.

I agree with the Crystal lite too. it will help improve your Water intake but watch out because it is often called Crystal Crack for a reason... It becomes addicting.

Good luck to you! I will be looking out for your future posts.

herbal tea, especially peppermint. My sleeve didn't like anything cold in the beginning

I really appreciated having my heating pad to keep on my stomach, it helped with the pain as well as the gas pain. Also some comfy slippers for all the walking.

All the best to ya !!.

For me my must have items I really couldn’t have done without were 2 thermoses one had hot tea in it the other Soup and I had them to drink on all day and night it saved heating and reheating soup whenever I wanted to eat and making tea when I wanted a drink.
That’s when I was home in hospital my own pjs vasaline slippers thick socks robe cleanser dry shampoo deodorant face cream baby wipes book.
Feeling human is a must when in hospital and i get bored easily so a book and I would go off walking around the hospital and sit out side a lot so slippers and robe was a must lol
I got in trouble for that as I was on oxygen I just assumed it was a general thing after surgery and because I didn’t have my cpap machine being used in hospital apparently no during my op I had major low stat drop and it wasn;t fully up to normal for 3 days after my op.
Day 2 when they found out I was wondering around a lot out of boredom I was told stay on it till your stats are up!
Also ended up being the reason I stayed in so long but I wasn;t told this to know and they told me to be up and about but apparently not that much or that far away lol

Edited February 25, 201412 yr by sassypants

Thanks all for your replies. I am making my list and these are all good suggestions.

I wore my own PJ's in the hospital. I think my dry mouth/breath was the worst. I used these disposable tooth brush things called "Wisps" they were great. ChapStick was crucial.

For me it was my phone and a LONG charging cable!! I had my iPad but I didn't use it that much, but my phone was crucial to answer all the "how was surgery?!" questions from friends!

After leaving the hospital, my best friend for the first couple of weeks was a heating pad. I only used pain meds (other than Liquid Tylenol) at night for the first week, when I was sitting around, I had the heating pad, on low, on my tummy!