Have you just heard the news there is something wrong with your brain and you need emergency surgery to fix it? After the surgery, recovery can be hard, but here are some tricks to help you feel better and get back to school.


Steps

1. Follow your neurosurgeon's instructions. If they tell you that you need to stay flat, stay flat. If they tell you that you need to get up and walk around, do it.
2. Try sitting in a chair for a day about 2-3 days after surgery to get your head feeling okay again.
3. Eat as much as you can. If you are not hungry from the trauma you just went through, start with small, frequent meals, such as an apple and a few crackers.
4. Drink plenty of fluids. The faster you can get the IV out, the faster you will be able to go home! Once you are out of the intensive care unit or pediatric ward and released for home, try to get some sleep on the way home in the car.
5. When you get home, lie down for an hour or so and then do very minimal activity. About two days later, you could probably return back to school unless your neurosurgeon has told you otherwise. You will not be able to do PE or any contact sport for about 3 months depending on the surgery, so get at a study hall during that time!

Tips

• Ask your friends to come visit you in the hospital.
• Take advantage of the chocolate you get--eat it. it's good to have some sugar in your body and it makes a good small, frequent meal.
• You can ask for some painkillers if you want. If you are hooked up to a pain pump, just press the button and pain medicine (usually morphine) will be injected through your IV.
• Don't think about home too much. This may cause you to feel stressed out about being away from home or school.
• Ask your friends or parents to get your schoolwork from the school if you didn't know that you were going to have the surgery before hand, but don't tire yourself out, if you start to get a headache stop.
• Do the homework in the hospital, then you can do other things.
• Do not do all of your homework in one day, as this may cause you to get a headache and may make you very tired. Start out slow. Do just a few subjects a day.

Warnings

• This is just general advice. Brain surgery can be extremely serious, so always listen to what the Doctor has to say. When you get released from the hospital, you will have a list of things you can do and not do, as well as eat and not eat. Follow those instructions.
• Depending on the severity of the surgery, you might not be able to return to school for a week, or maybe a month.