Recovering from surgery isn't an easy task.  Regardless of how complicated the surgery was, if you don't have the right plan in place, you could be looking at a long recovery.  When you come out of surgery and your surgeon wants to go over the next steps of your life, these are what they should tell you.

Although no road to recovery is easy: these steps can help make it go easier!

After surgery, the worst thing you can do is ignore the pain and resume your life as if nothing happened.  Not only can using a full range of motion possibly cause problems with a scar stretching for some surgeries, but it can also make it impossible to heal fully.

While healing, if you stretch and move new scar tissue, the skin will stretch and make the scar seem larger and more imposing.  Consider researching how long to use silicone scar tape for your specific surgery, and follow through with their directions to minimize how much your scarring puckers or stretches.

Trying to move and act like nothing happened after surgery can also cause damage to your body since it's not just the outside that's healing.  Most internal surgeries also require internal healing that needs to be completed to avoid internal bleeding or damage. So take your time, heal fully, and then resume your life.

This can feel like a silly thing to be warned about, but sneezing, coughing, and yawning can all stretch and hurt for many surgeries.  If you had your appendix removed, for example, the act of sneezing can contract your stomach, pulling against your healing scars and causing you to hurt.  Even laughing after the first week of surgery can be painful.

Instead, pay attention to the movements and actions you take throughout your day.  This means being sure that you don't react too strongly or put yourself in pain without realizing it.  A good way to calm a sneeze if you feel one coming on is to rub the roof of your mouth with your tongue and avoid looking at any bright lights until the urge to sneeze has left.  Although this can’t stop every sneeze, it might be enough to help you make it through the worst parts of healing.

Sometimes the best advice you can receive is how to recognize an emergency.  Of course, if your wound starts bleeding a lot, if you notice sudden bulges on your body around the area of surgery, or your skin takes on a yellow hue, you should go to the hospital immediately.  From here, you should talk to your surgeon about what other signs you should keep an eye out for.  Most surgeries go off without a hitch and allow for you to heal and move on with your life, so don't think that these emergencies are the norm: remember what to look out for, and take care of yourself so that you'll heal quickly.