Diving After Surgery- What's Your Experience

[goddessfish]

I'm having an outpatient surgery (in hospital, home same day, no overnight). I told my doctor I have a dive trip coming up and wanted to be sure I could dive following the procedure, first dive would be 10 days after the date of surgery.

He said, "no problem". That would be enough recovery time following the surgery.
The next day his office left me a vm saying, "the doctor strongly suggests that you do not scuba dive"

I mentioned the surgery to the nurse at my general practitioner's office and she told me she had a similar procedure and was diving a week later without a problem.

I do not want to postpone my trip, of course, but I'm getting conflicting info. I won't risk complications, and should probably follow the doctor's recommendation, but why would he change his mind? Haven't been able to speak to him since that message.

WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH DIVING AFTER SURGERY?

How long did you have to wait? Did you feel any different physically?

Thanks for your feedback

 

[doctormike]

Hi, Goddessfish...

Thanks for writing!

While we can't really tell you that it is OK to dive over the Internet, I would think that the most important piece of information here would be actual surgery that you had done.

For example, if I repair a tympanic membrane, I won't let people dive or fly for a month or more. On the other hand, if the operation is to remove a cyst in the neck, I let people swim (and dive) as soon as the wound is healed (usually about 5 days).

Good luck with your procedure..! I think that you really need to speak with the doctor.

Best,

Mike

 

[BabyDuck]

well, you asked for my experience...

i dove 30 days after my c-section, though i made my buddies haul all my gear & got into it in the water. the limiting factor was the breast pumping.

 

[TSandM]

There are a lot of ramifications to clearing someone for any given activity after surgery.

The first is the functional implication of the procedure itself. Operations that cut through or involve repair of muscles, tendons, ligaments or bone obviously impact functional status. Repairs done to these structures can be fragile at first, and carting scuba gear around, or even swimming with the force multipliers which are fins, can be contraindicated until healing is well advanced. Mike's example of an eardrum repair is another case where diving would stress the surgical site.

The second is wound healing, and the rate of that varies with the location and depth of the wound. Incisions made on the face or neck will heal much more quickly than those on the lower leg. Incisions in areas where there isn't much movement will be more tolerate of activity than those made in the vicinity of joints.

The third is what I would call surgical stress. This includes blood loss, tissue injury, and anesthesia. I would imagine, since this is day surgery, that blood loss and tissue injury are minimal (most procedures that involve a lot of either require inpatient stays). But if the surgery is done under general anesthesia, you may find that your stamina is significantly impacted for a couple of weeks.

Given the scant information in the original post, that's the best I can do for an answer.

 

[goddessfish]

Thank you all for your feedback. I really appreciate it!

I had the surgery on Monday and although it was a bit more invasive than I had anticipated, all went better than expected. I didn't need general anesthia, which I dreaded. Instead, I had some sort of sedation and an epidural. I have two small incisions which I'm sure will heal nicely and quickly.

I am following the doctor's recommendation and going on restriction for 4 weeks. Since I do a lot of activities involving the area of the surgery, I'm not willing to take any chances and risk any complications.

My dive trip will be postponed. The good news is that I get an extra week vacation!

 

[Scuba Dive Asia]

Hello Goddessfish,

From my experience. Be sure everything is healed properly before diving again. The only person able to advise you here is your doctor.

I think you made the right decision. It is not always easy to postpone a trip especially if planned for a while already. However, you better be safe than sorry. In your case it is a win/win situation. You will still be diving soon and you get a week bonus

Have a smooth recovery and enjoy your next dive vacations!

Best,
Bob

 

[goddessfish]

Thank you Bob! That's exactly what I'm doing. The four weeks of restriction will be good for me, I hope! I'm going to try to slow down, which is a concept that is foreign to me! Organizing drawers, sewing on buttons, REALLY BORING stuff like that Oh! and maybe meander through some dive magazines!