Hey all, surgery was Tuesday, and I'm feeling pretty good all things considered. I did have a question about walking to prevent blood clots. All my paperwork and the RN at discharge said to walk one minute every fifteen minutes. How realistic is that? I'm so paranoid and have been spending an hour pacing around my room, then I'll lay down/recline for a bit, then pace around some more. I finally had time to rewatch the LotR movies, and I spent most of the movies pacing.

Last summer after getting my covid shot I was so paranoid about it interacting with my birth control and causing a clot, I actually sent my self to the ER...the doctors didn't find anything and said it was probably an anxiety attack. Which makes sense, I get bad anxiety and my brain has been know to blow thing out of proportion.

I think I'm starting to get a lil dehydrated too because I can feel little muscle spasms in my calves, which I usually get after a hard work out. The muscle spasms aren't helping my anxiety lol.

But yeah, how much walking did y'all do immediately post op? Duration and frequency?

First of all, take a deep breath. Allowing yourself to fall into an anxiety spiral is NOT helpful to your healing and recovery.

Next, TRUST YOUR TEAM. They are there for a reason, they are the experts. They have the knowledge and experience and education. I promise you, they have FAR better advice for you than a random bunch of strangers on the internet. Follow their guidelines - if they say 1 minute per 15, then that is what they want you to do. If you feel good and want to do 2 minutes, sure that's fine! But worrying yourself into walking for hours on end is not helpful or healthy.

And yes, you need to be mindful of your hydration. Sit down, drink some water with electrolytes, and call your team if you have any concerns.

I mean, I would just follow what your team says.

Mine just said walk regularly throughout the day.

I basically walked to get my own everything (drinks, broth, etc.) to the bathroom. Every once in a while, likely about every hour or two I would walk the length of my house a few times, more trips as it went.

After a few days we went to the field and walked around the track. I would get tired quick so took breaks and walked longer each time.

Then basically back to normal. I hate walking, it is SO BORING for me.

I do make a point to walk more but not like formal exercise or on the tread mill or anything like that.

When I got home, I did my normal chores which is about 4K steps a day. I did my usual cleaning and have my beloved cats to take care of. They didn't care if I had surgery or not. lol

My Watch reminds me to get up every hour. I did that in addition to getting up to pee or get drinks, etc so probably every 30 minutes?? If your team says one minute every 15 though I would follow that advice.

I walked to go to the bathroom and get myself drinks and meds throughout the day. Otherwise, my team said to walk regularly so in addition to that I walked five times a day, five times around the outside of my house and spread that throughout the day. I pumped my legs frequently.

honestly, one minute every fifteen minutes is odd. (I am a nurse, and I’ve never heard that specifically.) If you’re finding that hard to do, or likely, interfering with resting and getting in fluids and causing anxiety, I would probably get up every hour instead and walk around for say, five minutes around your house. When you’re awake and laying down or sitting pump your feet back and forth a few times. Wiggle your toes back and forth. If you want to see if that would be a safe option give your team a call! I’m sure they would give you their approval!

sending you a speedy recovery!

I think the walking after surgery requirements (clot prevention) is only temporary for a couple of weeks. I was just told to not sit still for hours, 1 minute every 15 just seems weird and how are you suppose to relax and recover doing that. getting up getting a drink going to toilet and normal stuff you do around the house maybe a small walk every couple of hours ( around your house) would be enough. but dont stress about it.

My team told me to get up and walk around at least once every four hours. They didn't give me a set amount of time to move around. Once I got back to work (from home) I started getting up to walk for a minute every hour. When I had my follow up with my nurse she said that's good to do, but to also start getting in a 15-20 minute walk per day, just at an easy pace, and not to get out of breath, make sure I can still hold a conversation type pace.

After a few weeks after surgery my body was so fatigued from limited calories. So once your body doesn't have a reserve, rest and take care of yourself with little walks a day. This lasted about 2 weeks, until I got to soft foods and had was eating 1/2 cup meals. I almost left my grocery cart. Twice. As I was so exhausted and just wanted to go home.

I was just told to walk, I wasn't given any guidelines for what that meant. I did some walking back and forth in the living room, but not a lot - just when the pain seemed to be getting worse. I also got my own "meals", so I was up in the kitchen heating up broth and getting protein shakes, refilling my water, etc. I took a shower every day, so there was activity in that. Other than that, I was fairly sedentary.

I was about the same. It wasn't til week 3 I walked a bit outside. Good weather and sun. It was week 4 when I went to grocery store. I walked around aisles to get what I needed. Spent my energy and could barely stand in checkout line. So do a short run for groceries and go back another day. With low calorie intake, body has little energy. It wasn't till I got a few days of soft foods that my energy raised. Patience. I niw walk around Walmart to get some steps in. I'm headed to gym in January. Surgery 10/19.