If you are planning to have surgery your biggest concern should be the final outcome. Will your life be improved by the procedure or do the risks outweigh the rewards? No surgery is risk free, but understanding the possible complications can help you make a better decision.

Immediately before your surgery the surgeon will meet with you and explain the potential risks for your surgery. This process is called "informed consent" and is absolutely necessary, but happens too late to assist in planning.

If you have had surgery, the food you eat can make a great impact on your recovery and on how quickly your wound heals. Eating the right foods can prevent complications, such as constipation, and provide the necessary building blocks your skin needs to heal quickly.
One of the best things you can do to improve your nutritional status when you are recovering from surgery, is to focus on whole foods. That means to choose foods that are “whole” or unprocessed. For example, an orange would be a whole food. Orange juice, though, would be a more processed version. A baked potato would be a whole food, while a French fry would be more processed and less healthy, having been fried.

Processed foods tend to have much higher amounts of fat, sugar, salt and chemical additives, but far less fiber and vitamins than their whole food counterparts. One easy way to stick to more nutritious, less processed foods is to focus on the outside aisles of the grocery store. Most grocery stores are set up with unprocessed foods on the outermost areas of the store in the produce, butcher/fish, dairy and bread areas. By doing the majority of your shopping in those areas, you will naturally choose healthier foods.

Surgical incisions require care in order to heal quickly and completely without becoming infected. Closed surgical incisions require the same care whether they were closed with sutures, staples, steri-strips or surgical glue. Open incisions, or incisions that are left open for the surgeon to close at a later time, require very different care from the standard closed incision.

If you have had surgery and your incision is still healing, plan on showering at least once a day if you are able. A shower is an ideal way to clean your incision and remove soap residue without softening the incision to the point of weakness. If you cannot shower, it is best to take a “sponge bath” rather than bathe for the first few weeks if you cannot bathe without soaking your incision for an extended period of time.