5 Causes of body weakness after surgery: procedure, safety, side effects, and benefits

Fatigue and weakness are among the symptoms that often occur after surgery. Even if the operation is a minor operation, after the operation you can still feel tired. So, is body weakness after surgery a normal thing? Check out the reviews below.

Is fatigue after surgery normal?

Source: Care Sync

Fatigue is a normal condition after surgery, really. Usually, the feeling of fatigue decreases as the recovery process progresses.

Therefore, after finishing the operation, a recovery process is needed before returning to activities. Some things that must be done include adequate sleep, do not move a lot, nutritious food intake must be fulfilled, and taking medication regularly to help the body recover faster. If not, your condition can drop dramatically and cause new problems.

What causes fatigue after surgery?

There are several causes that can cause postoperative fatigue, namely:

1. The anesthetic effect

Drugs used during surgery to provide an unconscious or anesthetic effect basically have the effect of making the body feel weak. However, the factors of age and the initial health condition before surgery will determine this effect as well.

The younger and healthier a person is, the effects of this anesthetic will wear off much faster than for older and less healthy people.

2. Anemia and blood loss

Anemia is a condition of a lack of healthy red blood cells. During surgery, the body bleeds due to the procedure being performed. As a result, this bleeding reduces the number of red blood cells in the body circulation, aka anemia.

If you have a history of anemia before surgery, then you can also experience anemia after surgery. In addition, blood loss during surgery may also allow a person to experience anemia after surgery. The lower the red blood cell count, the greater the feeling of fatigue experienced.

So, don't be surprised if after surgery you feel weaker than usual. The feeling of weakness due to the loss of red blood cells can also be worse in people who are already anemic at first. The body will feel weaker.

3. Lack of sleep

The condition of the body before surgery can also determine the effect of the body being very weak after surgery. Before surgery, some people were anxious about going through it. This anxiety makes it difficult for some people to sleep before surgery, especially right before the surgery date.

Lack of sleep triggers drowsiness or fatigue when the person regains consciousness after surgery. Even though the patient is given an injection of anesthetic until he falls asleep, it cannot pay off his previous sleep deprivation.

Therefore, after you are fully aware of the operation, the body charges the sleep deprivation by feeling tired or drowsy.

4. Lack of nutrients, including essential minerals

Before surgery, patients are usually advised to fast to prevent problems that can occur related to the gastrointestinal tract during the surgery. In fact, the fasting time is often extended for some time after surgery.

As a result, people who have undergone surgery will lose their usual intake of intake. Minerals or electrolytes in the body are increasingly depleting.

Although fluids are still given during the operation through an IV, not all the minerals the body needs are contained in it. Losing some of these supposedly adequate nutrients can trigger drowsiness, muscle weakness, irregular heartbeats, and general weakness.

Therefore, after surgery care is needed to return to meet all the needs of the body.

5. Drug effect

During or after surgery, a number of drugs are usually given to patients to regulate blood pressure or manage other conditions during surgery. Some of the drugs used during preparation for surgery to after this operation have side effects of body weakness.

For example, the benzodiazepine drug (loraezpam) which is commonly used to reduce muscle spasms and insomnia. As a result, patients can feel sleepy and tired, so they want to sleep on.

In many people, antibiotics such as cephalexin (Keflex) and sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim) can cause body weakness as well.

When is body weakness said to be abnormal after surgery?

If a person who is after surgery feels the weakness does not go away or even gets weaker from day to day during recovery, this is just a fatigue that needs to be watched out for. The body should be more energetic during the recovery process, because the body has started to get the opportunity to rest and get better nutrition.

Increased feeling of weakness during the surgical recovery process should be reported immediately to the surgeon and nurse. Because, there could be wrong procedures during recovery so that the body does not get enough energy. Or it could be that there are other problems in the body after surgery.