Senior care in India needs expert professionals, especially post-surgery assistance.
Post-operation, elderly patients have a weak body. They might face fatigue from surgery along with constant body pain.
During this period, senior care assistants need to look after their medical needs and assist them in recovering.
Post-surgery, senior patients’ mobility might be affected. Their muscle and joint movement become even more limited if they lead a sedentary lifestyle. Hence, physiotherapy sessions must take place at home to improve the patient’s recovery process.
By doing the exercising regimens recommended by physiotherapists regularly, the mobility of the elderly patient improves.
Senior care assistants need to motivate senior patients to perform the exercises to return to their active and purposeful life.
Senior patients post-surgery need to understand by following the exercise regimen prescribed by the physiotherapist, their muscle and bone movement will improve. They can gradually gain back their body balance.
In addition to this, their fatigue and body pain would also reduce; therefore, they do not have to consume painkillers.
Before assigning post-surgery exercises to the elderly patient, senior care assistants must have a discussion with physiotherapists to create a gradual progressive plan that begins with simple exercises. Slowly, the intensity of the physiotherapy sessions and exercise regimens will increase.
This is useful as the patient will get motivated after seeing improvement after following the easy exercises.
Let us understand the different post-surgery exercises for senior citizens at home :
- Brisk Walking
Light and brisk walking is the most basic and easy form of exercise that senior citizens can do. They can do it on their balcony or inside the room first, before deciding to do it at public parks.
Senior care assistants also need to support them not to fall and incur any injuries.
Also, if the brisk walk is happening at home, all furniture with sharp and pointed corners should be re-arranged so that the patient does not get hurt.
Through brisk walking, the body slowly comes into motion With time, the blood circulation in the body improves. Gradually, the muscle movements become more stable.
With the recommendation of a physiotherapist, the elderly patient and seeing the progress may increase the intensity of the walking speed.
Brisk walking is a highly beneficial exercise for patients recovering from hip surgery.
- Breathing exercises
After surgery, the fatigue may affect other organs of the body. Already, elderly patients have weak lung muscles and comorbidity issues, post-surgery, they can have breathing problems as the lung muscles might be weak.
Physiotherapists recommend breathing exercises that improve lung capacity and better oxygen circulation in the body.
Slow and deep breathing exercises are helpful for the lung’s health. Senior care assistants can guide them during the breathing exercise and observe if they face any difficulty.
Either by sitting on the bed or in a wheelchair, the senior person can do the breathing exercises.
First, they could start with normal breathing, followed by deep breathing. The senior person can try to hold their breath for five seconds and then exhale. The time duration of breath-holding can gradually increase.
- Ankle Pumps and circles
For elderly patients who are recovering from knee surgery, ankle pumps and circulations can benefit them.
It helps to improve blood circulation, lower the chances of swelling, and prevent blood clots.
Circulation exercises by rotating feet clockwise and anti-clockwise while keeping the toes upward.
Patients should also try flexing the ankles, and senior care assistants must ensure that the foot fully extends with the toe pointed towards the body.
The ankle pump and circle exercises can be done on the bed in a reclining body posture.
- Arm Lifts
This exercise is recommended for forearm surgery patients or elderly women who have surgically removed their breasts as part of their breast cancer treatment.
The arm lifting exercise regimen helps to reduce the chances of swelling and enable the restoration of arm movements.
The patient can raise their hands for 4-5 minutes above the heart level by being in a reclining position on the bed.
The senior care assistant can hold the affected arms and support them with pillows to keep them in the proper position.
- Shoulder shrugs and head turns
For elderly patients who have undergone shoulder or heart surgery, shoulder shrugs and head turn exercises can provide quick relief to the elderly patients.
The exercise allows the patient to bend back and forth and turn side-by-side. This enables muscle movement and flexibility, which is highly beneficial for recovery after surgery.
Every day caretakers and physiotherapists should help the patient do five sets of this exercise. For improving posture post-surgery, this exercise is a big boon.
If you want your elderly patient to recover quickly, make sure they do these exercises under the observation of physiotherapists and caregivers by following a gradual progress plan.
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