After surgery, caring for your parent may be more difficult than you’d planned. Your dad may be stubborn and refuses to listen to your reminders to take it easy. Your mom may not want you to help her with her medications.
Pay close attention to your parent’s surgeon’s instructions. Home health care services will likely be available after surgery. Instead of having to do things you’re not trained for, a skilled nurse will come to your parent’s house and take care of the more medical aspects of post-surgical care. These are services your family will appreciate.
Wound Care
Changing surgical dressings and checking an incision for signs of infection isn’t for everyone. If there is an infection, the redness, heat, and oozing may be a lot to handle. With skilled nurses coming to your parent’s home, you have an expert on hand to check, clean, and reapply bandages.
If there are issues like popped stitches, nurses can discuss options with the surgeon and discuss the next steps to take. You’ll be informed without needing to figure out if it’s an emergency or not. Nurses have the knowledge needed to make decisions regarding incisions and how well they’re healing.
Medication Administration
After some surgeries, your parent may need pain medications or IV antibiotics. Home health care nurses can do this. They can insert IV lines, administer the medications, and remove the IV if needed. These are all things that you wouldn’t do on your own, and it saves repeated trips to a medical office.
Is the current dose of pain medication not helping your mom or dad as they recover from an invasive surgical procedure? Nurses can talk to doctors and adjust medications if needed.
Feeding Tubes, Colostomy Bags, and Catheters
Not every surgery will lead to things like feeding tubes, catheters, or colostomy bags, but some conditions do require them. They may be temporary or permanent. Skilled nurses can teach you how to care for a parent who requires these.
You could have a nurse teach you how to flush feeding tubes before using a syringe to administer the nutritional formula your mom or dad requires. Nurses could come to take care of colostomy bag changes or make sure a catheter isn’t causing an infection.
Basic Health Checks
The other thing home health care assists with are basic health checks after a surgery. Nurses can take and record blood pressure, oxygen, pulse, and respiration rates. If there is anything of concern, they’ll alert the doctor.
Pair home health care with non-medical home care services. While your mom or dad heals, caregivers can keep the house clean, do the laundry, change bedding, and wash towels. Call a home care agency to make the arrangements.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering Home Care Services in Medford, MA, please contact the caring staff at Visiting Nurse & Community Care today. (781) 643-6090