The Essential Guide to After Surgery Gifts

Your love and support are the most important things you can give to someone recovering from surgery. Still, it’s natural to want to bring a gift, like a get well card or balloons. A thoughtful gift can lift a patient’s spirits and help make an uncomfortable recovery a little more tolerable. But not all gifts are allowed in every area of the hospital, and some gifts are not appropriate for certain surgery patients. Read more to learn the dos and don’ts of giving after surgery gifts.

If you’re just looking for some ideas for after surgery gifts, check our other guides:  Ten Creative After Surgery Gifts for Women and Ten Creative After Surgery Gifts for Men.

Gifts For ICU Patients

One place in a hospital is not suitable for most gifts: the intensive care unit (ICU) – sometimes called a Critical Care Unit (CCU). The ICU is where specially trained doctors and nurses provide around the clock care to patients in the early stages of recovering from major surgery.

ICUs are busy, brightly lit, and full of activity. Patients in this unit are often connected to multiple monitors, medicated for pain, and sometimes mechanically assisted with breathing. Patients in the ICU mostly need time to heal and need the love and support of close friends and family.

Can ICU patients have visitors?

Yes, ICU patients can almost always have visitors – usually family and very close friends. However, consider:

• When
  The policy for visiting varies widely between hospitals, and is at the discretion of ICU staff. Some ICUs may restrict visits to specific times. Other ICUs have open visiting hours, which allow visitors to spend as much time as they want with a patient. In fact, immediate family and close friends may spend all day and night by a patient’s bedside, especially in the early stages of recovery.

• Who
  Family involvement has a positive effect on patient recovery. However, if you’re not a family member, and you’re not essential to a patient’s recovery, then wait until the patient is moved to a regular hospital room before you visit.

• How many
  It’s common for ICUs to limit the number of visitors at one time, to avoid crowding that might disturb the patient or patient’s care. Be prepared to take turns if you visit with a group.

• How young
  Some ICUs do not allow children under a certain age to visit. Check with ICU staff ahead of time to avoid any disappointment.

For more visitation guidelines from a nurse’s perspective, read Hospital Etiquette: The Do’s and Don’ts of Visiting a Loved One.

Inappropriate after surgery gifts for ICU patients

• Balloons
  Most ICUs forbid balloons. In a tiny room full of life-saving medical equipment, busy hospital staff, and worried family, a helium-filled balloon is more of a hindrance than a help. ICUs that do allow balloons will probably insist on Mylar balloons, to avoid the allergy risks associated with latex.

• Food or drink
  Never bring food or drink to a patient without first checking with the patient’s ICU nurse. Post surgery patients have strict dietary restrictions. Some patients may not be able to eat or drink at all in the beginning of recovery.

• Live flowers or plants
  Live plants can carry insects, germs, and pollen. These can stress or compromise the already hard-working immune system of critically ill patients.

Appropriate after surgery gifts for ICU patients

Although gifts aren’t a great idea for ICU patients, here are a few potential exceptions:

• Photos of family & friends
  A few photographs of the patient with family and friends can personalize an otherwise unfamiliar room and lift a patient’s spirits. Photos can be particularly helpful for older patients, who are more likely to suffer from postoperative delirium – a temporary condition that can leave them confused and disoriented. Familiar faces in a photograph can help comfort patients suffering from delirium, and improve their stay in the ICU.

• Magazines, books, & music
  Books, newspapers, magazines, and iPods are often allowed by ICU staff. Wi-fi is not always available, so load music or podcasts onto an iPod ahead of time.

• Get well cards
  Very few flat surfaces are available in an ICU room, and very often those surfaces are already filled with items essential to a patient’s recovery. Get well cards take up little room and can be taped to the wall. (Bring tape, too!)

Gifts for family members of ICU patients

The immediate family members of ICU patients often put their lives on hold while they tend to their loved one. Caring for (and worrying about) a loved one after major surgery is difficult and disruptive. However, you can help ease the family’s burden with some of the following gift ideas.

• ICU diary
  A diary can help family members keep track of a patient’s progress. Diaries can help family members to stay positive and focus on adding up the small improvements over time. A family member’s diary can be useful for patients as well. Patients can have confused memories (or even no memories) of their stay in the ICU. After they’re back home, reading through an ICU diary can remind them of what they’ve accomplished, and fill in any gaps in their memory.

• Household chores
  Offering to take care of some everyday, household chores while the patient is hospitalized is a practical and thoughtful gift that anyone will appreciate. Some ideas include feeding and walking a pet, yard work, getting the mail, and baby sitting.

• Care calendar
  Lotsa Helping Hands is a free, online service that allows users to update family and friends in one place, as well as request meals, rides to medical appointments, visits, and more.

Gifts For Hospital Patients

Once patients no longer needs intensive monitoring, they will be transferred to a regular hospital floor where gift-giving is less restrictive than in the ICU. Gifts that ease boredom and increase comfort are ideal.

Inappropriate after surgery gifts for hospital patients

• Food or drink
  You may be tempted to bring a surgery patient a home-cooked meal or a drive-thru hamburger, but you should check with them and/or their nurse before offering. Patients are frequently put on strict diets after surgery. If you’re unsure, check first.

• Scented gifts
  Candles, incense, and other strong smells can be overpowering in a small room. Smells may also make patients feel nauseous.

• Word and logic games
  Word puzzles (like crosswords) and logic games (like sudoku) are popular. A lot of patients would appreciate games as gifts. Be sure to consider the patient’s condition first. Surgery can be just as taxing mentally as it is physically, and patients may also be sedated, which can make even simple puzzles frustratingly difficult.

Appropriate after surgery gifts for hospital patients

• Earplugs & a sleep mask
  Hospitals are bright and loud, even at night. Foam earplugs and a sleep mask can give patients a break.

• Newspapers & magazines
  Sleeping passes some of the time, but many patients become restless as they recover. A newspaper or a magazine (or a stack of magazines!) is a great gift for a restless patient.  These types of reading material provide entertainment without too much commitment. A patient may be too tired or sedated to concentrate on an entire book.

• Warm non-slip socks
  Hospitals floors are cold, hard, and slippery. Warm, non-slip socks are thoughtful and practical for any hospital patient. Non-slip is important. Patients are often required to walk around the hospital as part of their daily physical therapy, and socks that slide on hospital floors can be dangerous.

• A soft, warm blanket
  For some reason, hospitals can’t get blankets right. They’re too small to cover everything, too thin to be warm, or both. A reasonably sized, comfy blanket is a great gift for someone stuck in a hospital bed. If you bring one from home, make sure that it is freshly cleaned and free of allergens like pet dander.

• Flowers, balloons, cards
  Get-well gifts like flowers, balloons, and cards are generally good. Latex balloons are not allowed in most hospitals due to concerns about latex allergies. Instead, give Mylar balloons. Most of these items can be found in the hospital gift shop.

• Household chores
  You can give great relief to a patient if you take care of their day-to-day household chores. You can offer to pick up their mail, mow the yard, feed the family pet, and even baby sit.

Gifts For Home Recovery

Returning home after surgery is a relief, but patients may still continue to feel tired and weak for some time afterward. Surgery patients may not be able to return to normal activities right away. In fact, seemingly simply daily chores can be challenging or impossible during the beginning of recovery.

Your time and friendship are probably the best gifts you can give to someone recovering from surgery at home. But if you don’t want to show up empty-handed, try gifts that help patients overcome pain, mobility issues, and boredom.

After surgery gifts for home recovery

• Mobility aid accessories
  Recovering surgery patients may require mechanical aids to help them move around (canes, walkers, wheelchairs, etc.). When necessary, these mobility aids are usually supplied by the hospital before the patient is discharged, but you can give great gifts that are useful accessories for these aids. Consider:
  • Attachable walker accessories like trays, baskets, and bags to help patients carry items from room to room.
  • Cane accessories like wrist straps, safety lights, and colorful, custom cane covers.
  • Reacher/grabber tools that allow patients to reach objects without bending or straining.

• Lap desk
  Patients spend much of the early days of recovery on the couch or in bed. A lap desk is incredibly helpful for eating meals, surfing on a laptop, or reading a book.

• Reading pillow
  Sitting up in bed can be a painful ordeal for surgery patients. A reading pillow helps alleviate some of that discomfort by propping up a patient like an easy chair.

• Loose fitting loungewear/pajamas
  Even a patient’s comfiest casual clothes might be too difficult to put on or too painful and restrictive to wear over still-sensitive incision sites. The solution? Pajamas.

• Home cooked meal
  If you’re comfortable in the kitchen, a home-cooked meal is a great gift idea. If you’re not a chef, you can order delivery.

• Reading material
  Books, magazines, and newspapers are great gifts for home-bound friends or loved ones on the mend. You can even pre-load a Kindle E-reader with any of the thousands of options on Amazon or free from Project Gutenberg.

• Music, audiobooks, & podcasts
  Get an inexpensive iPod Shuffle, like a used one on eBay. Then fill it with books, music, and podcasts. Now you have a gift to provide hours of much-needed distraction from the boredom and discomfort of recovery.

• Offer to do chores
  Chores still have to get done, even when we’re too sick to do them. Offer your time and energy as gifts. You can drive a patient to doctor’s appointments, clean their house, walk the dog, mow the lawn, pick up the mail, run errands, coordinate child care, pick up prescriptions, or anything else that requires an able body with some extra time.