Nausea is often experienced by many people following surgery. With the right medication, postoperative nausea will not be a problem for long. However, left unchecked, postoperative nausea can lead to vomiting, which can have serious effects on your health as you attempt to recover from surgery. This is an issue that should be discussed with your California doctor before you go through with an upcoming operation.
Very Well Health explains how nausea can impact your recovery. Feelings of nausea can make it harder to resume ordinary activities like drinking and eating. Nausea can also impede your ability to walk and may keep you confined to a sitting position or to bed for long periods of time, which delays exercise that can build back your health to perform other tasks like driving, jogging, or going back to work.
Vomiting can produce more serious consequences. Patients recovering from surgery may already be dealing with pain, and vomiting will add more pain on top of that. Vomiting can also be dangerous because it produces pressure on areas of the body trying to heal after surgery. Dehiscence, when surgery wounds reopen, can happen. Evisceration is when vomiting causes an internal organ to protrude from a surgical incision. This is life-threatening and could cause death if not dealt with.
These issues make it important to deal with nausea before it leads to vomiting. Physicians can prescribe medicine to patients to help deal with nausea. Patients with a prior history of chronic nausea should report it to their doctors. Also, an anesthesiologist can use anesthesia that has a weaker chance of producing nausea and vomiting. Patients should still take pain medication even if they feel nauseated; the pain medicine may still be able to ward off nausea.
Because California surgery patients have differing medical needs, do not read this article as actionable legal advice. It is only intended to inform you about medical malpractice topics.
