Home Care Aide after Brachioplasty

[KTNYC 1]

I am scheduled for an arm lift next month. I live alone and will be traveling out of town for the surgery which is approximately 2 hours from where I live. I am planning to stay 3 to 4 several days in a hotel near the hospital and will hire a 24hr home care aide while there. Does anyone have experience hiring a home care aide after this type of surgery. Also I am little worried about not having help once I go back home. Will I need to hire a home care aide for a couple of hours a day then?

Any advice would be greatly helpful. Thank you in advance!

[catwoman7 10,922]

I'm married so I didn't need it (I have a built-in home care aide!), but not sure I would have needed one. Other than reaching (like to upper cabinets), I didn't really have any restrictions that I can think of. You probably won't need one 24/7 at the hotel, either - maybe have someone stop in a couple times a day in case you need anything - or need your drains emptied (if you have them, that is - ) - but there wouldn't be any reaching at the hotel. Before your surgery, you may just need to put anything you might need once home on a counter or something so you can avoid reaching as much as possible.

hopefully someone not as far out of surgery as I am will respond - but honestly, I just don't remember there being that many issues with it - other than you're supposed to avoid reaching the first few weeks. And then I had drains the first three or four days that my husband emptied (but that was at the hotel right after the surgery)

Edited January 3, 2022 by catwoman7

[KTNYC 1]

Thank you so much. This is really helpful! It’s so hard to have an idea of how you will recover if you’ve never had surgery before. So I have been trying to plan everything out as much as possible.

I was thinking of leaving everything on the counter prior to leaving home so when I returned from my surgery I would have it all set up and make it easier for me.

[ShoppGirl 3,423]

I am only 9 months out but I had breast implants years ago. I know it’s not the same but I just wanted to add that maybe a cleaning girl would be helpful. That’s the stuff that I was tempted to do that I shouldn’t and they would probably be willing to reach a few things from the top shelf for you while they were there. I had a home health aide come in to check on me daily after my implants and after a melonoma excision and I didn’t feel like they did anything and remember thinking I would have rather have someone to pick up things a little. Just something to think about.

[Lynnlovesthebeach 625]

When I had my brachioplasty a year ago I also had a lower body lift at the same time. Before I went to the hospital I set my kitchen up so I wouldn't have to reach up or bend over. I borrowed my brother's countertop microwave because mine is over the stove. I also live alone. I got straws for my drinks because you can't bend your arms very much for the first couple of weeks. (My incisions went below the elbow, midway between the elbow and my wrist.) My brother came by daily for the first couple of weeks and brought me food, otherwise I ate easy stuff like yogurt, Protein Shakes, Soup or stuff that didn't require anything other than the microwave.

I really didn't feel the need for a full-time caretaker. The one thing that was uncomfortable for a long time though was driving, but I did it anyway! I didn't have drains in my arms but I did have 4 for my lower body lift and was able to manage those alone.

Good luck with your surgery. I'm having my 3rd (and hopefully last) plastic surgery on Thursday. I'm getting my thighs done.

[2Bsmaller18 435]

I would imagine the surgeon requires that you are not alone the first 24 hours anyway. The next day it would be helpful to have someone to set up and arrange things for you. From there you can probably handle things yourself or just have someone come for 1-2 hours once or twice a day. Showering is hard initially but you probably can't do that until you are back home anyway.

Bring one of those gripper openers just in case you need to open a bottle that's tight. You can ask the pharmacy to give you easy to open pill bottles not the child proof ones. Maybe try to pack a tiny scissor in your suitcase to open any plastic pain tablets. Gripping and ripping were hard to do after surgery besides the obvious reaching over head.

You would probably need help lifting your suitcase for the trip home. I wasn't driving for at least a week after.

I would definitely hire a cleaning service and also have them do laundry. There's no way you can safely pull out a load of heavy wet clothes or bedding. Later you can do just a small load with a few items on your own.

Get a long reacher, have a wedge for the bed (ask the hotel for a lot of extra pillows and even use an extra blanket rolled up to make a wedge to sleep more upright), maybe a seat for the shower and long shower hose so you can do that on your own once you return home.

Before you leave have your home set up so everything is within reach. Even buy milk in half gallons vs a big gallon size. Have everything set out on the counters so its ready when you get home. Not very eco friendly but have bottles of Water in the fridge and premake meals so you don't have to mess with that after surgery.