Hi, I'm Kevin, an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery coordinator.

In this short video, I'll explain how eating and moving helps your body to get better after surgery.

After surgery, many people want to stay in bed and move as little as possible.

This is called bed rest.

But the truth is that bed rest is usually bad for you.

That's because bed rest makes you lose muscle.

So, the longer you wait to move, the harder moving will be.

Bed rest also puts you at a higher risk of complications, like a blood clot or a lung infection, such as pneumonia.

How can you avoid these problems? By getting out of bed and moving.

Moving gets your blood flowing better, which helps to stop blood clots and clear your lungs.

Moving also exercises your muscles so you lose less muscle.

And because moving is so important, most people can expect to get out of bed the evening after surgery.

If that sounds fast, don't worry, your nurse will help you.

If you can go for a short walk, that's great. But if you can only sit up for a bit, that's good, too.

Over the next days, we'll ask you to do a bit more activity each day: sitting more often, walking farther, walking more often. Just don't overdo it.

If you do have to stay in bed, leg exercises can help lower your risk of blood clots, but they aren't as good as getting out of bed and just walking.

It's what our bodies are designed to do.

Moving is just good for us.

Right now, you may be wondering how you'll get the energy to do all this.

Well, that's why eating and drinking after surgery is so important.

Eating and drinking is the only way to give your body the nutrients and the energy it needs to move and to heal.

Many people think they shouldn't eat after surgery, but the truth is that most people actually can and should start to eat after surgery.

We'll also encourage you to chew gum and drink fluids, including nutrition supplements, as soon as you can.

Soon after surgery, you'll be offered fluids to drink.

Drinking these fluids keeps you hydrated, but it also helps clear your body of anesthetics, the medicines that put you to sleep.

Clearing your body of these medicines will help you feel less tired and more alert.

Drinking enough fluids after your surgery also helps us to remove those annoying IVs and catheters even sooner, making it even easier for you to move and walk around.

During surgery, your bowels slow down. It's like they've fallen asleep.

To reverse this, you should start chewing gum soon after surgery.

Chewing tricks your bowels into waking up and speeding up.

This can help prevent nausea and even help you get back to eating normally and having regular bowel movements sooner.

You'll likely be offered food the evening after or morning after surgery.

This is because good nutrition is so important for healing.

You'll start with lower fiber, smaller meals.

Because your bowels may be moving slowly, start with small amounts of food.

Choose what you want to eat from your meal tray and don't feel like you have to eat at all.

Especially for the first day or so, chewing gum, drinking fluids, and having nutrition drinks are more important than eating.

Just try to eat a little bit more food each day.

Over the first few days, you'll also be given nutrition supplement drinks.

You need these to get more calories and protein to help your wounds heal.

You'll get these drinks a few times a day.

Some people don't like the taste of these drinks, but you only need them for a few days, so think of them like a medicine that you'll need to take. They'll help you get better, sooner.

As you can see, eating and drinking after surgery is really important in helping your body to heal well.

That, along with getting out of bed and plenty of walking, means there's a lot you can control about your recovery.

The harder you work, the better the chances of you having a fast and complication-free recovery.

Now, we know this can be a lot to remember but don't worry, we'll give you a log book to remind you of your goals.

Thanks for joining me.​
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