Planning for Care after Major Surgery

It makes me sad and angry when I hear the care  some patients are getting. When major surgery is being planned it is important that the patient and his or her family or the parents ask very specific questions about the plans  for care after the surgery.  I  heard recently of a woman in her eighties who has ben having severe pain in her back. An orthopedist, who is board certified, but graduated form one of the less well-known medical schools told the woman that the back surgery would take three hours and she would go to her senior living  place the next day. I was appalled. Many of my neuromuscular patients needed back  surgery and our goal was to get them sitting up in bed the next day. P.T. was also started and the patients received it once or twice daily. All did well and after 10-14 days they were walking and doing well. That is far different from being sent to a place where no therapy was available and no real medical care. I would certainly have advised the woman to get a second opinion. I just hope she does not end up in a wheelchair.