Support Healing After Surgery and Injury

What do you do if you have a fall or perhaps an accident that involves breaking bones, tearing ligaments, massive bruising, sprains or you have to have surgery? Or, maybe you have had hip or knee replacements? How do you support the healing process? How do you encourage bones to mend, connective tissues to heal, deal with the trauma, both physical and emotional?

Sadly, it happened to us – hubby fell off his ladders and ended up having surgery on his hip and wrists, fractured his spine and had massive bruising. Of course, I mobilised immediately and lots of you have asked what I did to support his post-surgical healing. That’s what this factsheet is all about. I truly hope it helps.

Obviously, bear in mind that these are just my thoughts and ideas. You are not my patient and I don’t have your full case, so please do discuss this with your chosen health professionals. These are for your consideration only.

Heels Protocol

This is the place to start. Heels have a wonderful surgery protocol you can follow. I have used it for several patients and it has worked really well for them. The aim is to encourage lymphatic drainage and avoid too much oedema or swelling, the detoxification of eg. anaesthetics, keep control of inflammation, lower pain, and promote tissue healing.

If you know you are going in for surgery, you start with the pre-surgery protocol, preferably two months before to finish 5 weeks before your surgery date, and then continue with the post surgery protocol.

Of course, if you have accident or fall, you go straight for the post surgery protocol. There is also a protocol for post biopsy and post prostate surgery.

I’ve popped the full factsheet from Heels into DropBox for you so you can access it – it’s hard to find!

It is hard to access Heels homeopathics, especially the vials used here, but I can order them for you if needed. Just contact me and I will confirm prices. Happily, homeopathics are generally inexpensive.

Note that the vials are glass and you have to break the tip off them. I use a tea towel, pop my thumb on the little dot on the vial and break it there – it is designed to break cleanly at that point. I gently press my finger on the break to check there is no glass bits (I’ve never found any but I do it anyway) – not so hard that you hurt yourself if there are any sharp edges. Then I tap the remedy out into a bottle or glass of non-tap water, shake it up to mix gently, then sip through the day.

Homeopathic remedies are really safe and can usually be taken with any other medicines, which is why I start with these, often whilst the patient is still in hospital. Do not put the remedies in tap water, always use glass, never metal and take away from strong things like coffee or minty toothpaste, preferably 15 mins away from meals or drinks. Remember: less is more with homeopathy so don’t be tempted to take more than it says.

Emotional Support After Surgery or Falls

Don’t ignore the emotional trauma of having an accident, a fall, surgery or procedures. Get yourself some Bach rescue remedy and take that too, and give some to the people with you! In comes in several forms.

Tissue Inflammation & Repair After Injury

After surgery, you need to focus on controlling inflammation and making sure connective tissues like bone, tendons, muscles and ligaments have the raw materials they need to repair. You can get lots of anti-inflammatory and joint support type products, but I really like Arthrosoothe because it has a great mix of both. Joints, cartilage, ligaments, tendons and synovial fluid undergo a continuous but slow turnover and a re-modelling process and this contains lots of co-factors to help that happen. I’ve found it works really well for patients in-clinic.

Make sure you check any contraindications with anything else you are taking, such as morphine. See here for help with that. If there is something in it that doesn’t work with other meds etc, then try to get a similar mix but without that one ingredient, or take several to try and match it, or concentrate on the other bits of the protocol until you are off it.

The Importance of Protein After Surgery

You need specific amino acids to heal well as amino acids are the building blocks of all repair in the body. You could take a protein powder such as lupin, one of the only plant powders that has the full amino acid spectrum, or why if you are on dairy. But I chose Moss Amino Meal Select because it has all nine essential amino acids plus arginine, a mix that has been shown specifically to have helped burn victims, the elderly and people recovering from hip or knee surgery.

It works by promoting muscle protein synthesis (MPS) even without exercise, so is great for anyone trying to build or maintain muscle, especially. It comes in powder or capsule form. My hubby loved the chocolate one. You can use it as a meal replacement for weight loss, but as extra meals for muscle and weight gain. For repair, I suggest 1 shake a day should be enough.

Which Calcium Is Best for Bones After Surgery?

If you have broken a bone or needed a knee or hip replacement, you will probably be given some calcium to take. Or a medicine that helps you absorb Calcium. You may also be given some Vitamin D. The calcium hydroxyapatite form is by far the best calcium in this case. But it’s not that easy to get. I used this one. If you prefer, you can take a bone formula with it in – good idea for maintenance.

It is also a good idea longer-term to test for bone density. You will likely be offered a DEXA scan, which is great – have it. But also consider a DPD bone marker test, which can show changes much earlier than a DEXA.

The Importance of Omega Fatty Acids after Surgery

Omega 3 is very anti-inflammatory and many people have more Omega 6 – the pro-inflammatory type – than Omega 3. To make sure, I advise testing the fatty acids to see what you need or taking a balanced formula. There is some omega support already in the Amino Select if you’re taking that.

Gut & Liver Support After Surgery

You’re likely to have been given lots of different meds during your hospital stay – I was quite astounded how many! So, it can be a good idea to help your gut and liver repair after them.

You can use several things for the gut, but I found adding aloe vera and ground flaxseed to the protein smoothie helped. They act as prebiotics, but are also very anti-inflammatory. Note, flax is already in the Amino Select so no need to add more.

The aloe also works on the skin – just dab it on to promote healing and bring swelling and redness down.

Tip: if you had a lot of antibiotics, replenish your gut bacteria with a strong probiotic like this.

For the liver, milk thistle would be a good choice. Once you are off the Amino Select, it could be a good idea to give yourself a few months on a liver-clearance type multi.

Swelling and Oedema After Surgery or Injury

You’ll likely have some swelling and fluid build up (oedema) after any injury or operation. That’s normal, but we don’t want it to hang around and start pooling as it brings a higher risk of things like cellulitis etc.

Use gravity to help you by elevating the affected area if you can. And try compression bandages if advised.

Once assured it is OK, you can start to apply gentle massage to push any stagnant lymph towards the lymph nodes. You can have a specialist do this for you – especially if you have had cancer or a major illness – it’s a good idea to have one session and let them show you how to carry on with it yourself if appropriate.

Essential oils can really help with lymph and swelling. Try a couple of drops of grapefruit and geranium in some olive oil or any balm or cream that suits. Use St Johns Wort oil if you have nerve pain.

Tip: aromatherapy dosage – generally use 4 drops of essential oil to 10ml of base oil or cream. max 20 drops in 50ml.

Wound and Scar Healing

Once the wound has closed, you may be advised to massage it to help break up adhesions or scar tissue. Use something that will nourish the skin really well. You could use the aloe as mentioned above and/or a scar tissue product like this.

Pure pomegranate, rosehip or borage oil would be great. Even better if you put in a couple of drops of frankincense essential oil.

TIP: To help promote healing if a wound is inflamed, you could mix some Traumeel from above in a base (with no essential oil) and combine it with arnica and aloe oil.

There is some research to suggest that proteolytic enzyme supplements can help to break down adhesions and excess scar tissue. I’ve not had any experience with that, but it might be worth considering. Talk to your practitioner about the right timing to take it as you don’t want to prevent scar tissue from forming at first. The most common one used in the UK is Intenzyme Forte. But I’m told much of the original research was done on Wobenzyme, which is a US make and not that easy to get in the UK.

Finally (!), I think something like Inflammatone might be useful after you finish the Arthrosoothe as it contains plenty of anti-inflammatories and the correct proteolytic enzymes.

Ok, so I have tried to cover a lot of bases for you there – generally, these kind of approaches should help if you’ve broken bones, torn ligaments, had surgery, biopsies or falls. Do, please talk your your chosen practitioners before taking anything as they have your full case and I have no idea what else you are on!