The video that you're about to watch contains important information about your

discharge.

It also highlights questions that you may want to discuss with the health care team

as they work with you towards planning your discharge home.

Susan: Hi Eileen.

I'm really glad to hear that you're starting to think about your discharge home
from the

hospital.

It's important that we talk about things ahead of time so that you know what to
expect, and

that will help you with your recovery when you are at home.

Eileen: Hi Susan.

Thanks for coming in to see me.

I am a little scared about going home and I would like to know what kinds of things

i need to worry about or ask.

S: So, there are certain things that we really need to talk about that you need to
be

aware of.

Things like who to call if you have any questions, medications, pain control, signs
and symptoms

of an infection, and there's also things that you will and will be able to, or can
and can’t

do when you get home.

E: Ok.

What do you mean by can and can’t do?

S: Well, there may be some limitations to activity, or you may need to change some
lifestyle

things when you get home.

Those changes may be just temporary as you recover from the illness, or you may
need

to make some permanent changes.

Why don’t we go over everything one at a time in more detail and then you can ask
questions

as we go.
Remember that at the most of the information that we're going to discuss here is in
the

information package that you received, either during your pre-admission visit or
from the

doctor's office.

E: Okay, that's great.

So, what kind of things do I need to know?

S: Let's start with talking about why you were in the hospital.

It's really important that you know exactly why you were here, and if you had
surgery,

what the operation was that you had done.

So, you and your family need talk about that.

When you ask the health care team, if you don't understand their explanation,
please

ask repeated again and explain it differently.

Sometimes, we tend to forget and use technical terms, so it’s okay to remind us to
speak

in plain English and simpler language.

E: Okay, that makes sense.

So, let's start with whatever you’d like to start with.

S: Okay, how about medications; they are really important.

You may have been started on some new medications when you came into hospital here,
or you may

well have been on medications before and we’ve either changed or discontinued those
medications.

So, that’s important to talk about.

Ask your health care team whether or not the medications you were on before should
be continued

when you do get home, and certainly, if you have any questions about your
medications,

ask to speak with our pharmacist.

They’ll come in, go over the medications with you; what they’re for, possible side

effects…

they’ll be able to give you written information and that sort of thing.
So, certainly ask.

Do you know if you have any drug coverage?

E: I'm not too sure what you mean.

S: Well, certain people have drug coverage through their benefits of work, and that
covers

the cost of medications.

Some people have private insurance for that, or they may be under a government drug
benefit

program.

It’s important that if you're not sure if you have drug coverage that you ask to
speak

with a social worker before your discharge from the hospital.

E: Okay, what about pain medications?

Because I've been taking a lot of that since I’ve been here.

S: Okay.

That's really important as well.

For anybody who's the started on pain medication.

Pain control’s an extremely important part of your recovery.

Certainly ask about your pain medication; you can ask any of the health care team.

The doctors, nurses and pharmacists will all be able to explain your pain
medication to

you - the possible side effects, the dosages, and those types of things.

Remember, one of the main side-effect of pain medication is constipation, so you

need to

be aware of that and stay on top of that.

When the doctors give you the prescriptions for the pain medications, you may want
to

get them filled at the pharmacy downstairs here before you even leave the hospital.

That way, you’ve got your meds ready to go as soon as you get home.

E: Okay.

Is pain the only thing I need to worry about when I go home?

S: Well, no.

There are several other things that you need to know about.
What you need to be aware of will be aware of will be determined by either the
surgery

that you've had done or the illness that you were hospitalized for.

You need to ask the team what specific things you need to be aware of.

Let’s say you have been in for surgery: we would ask you to monitor your incision

for signs and symptoms of an infection.

So, you need to look for things like redness at the incision, a sudden increase in
swelling,

if there is any increase in the pain at the incision, if there's any drainage of
pus or

discharge coming out of it, that's really important.

You also need to be aware if you've got a fever, you need to let us know that, and
finally

if you start to cough up any yellow or green mucus, that could be indicative that
you're

starting with a respiratory infection we need to know about that as well.

Make sure you ask the health care team before you leave the hospital what specific
things

you need to keep an eye on when you get home.

E: Okay, and how do I know if there's something going on, and when should I start
to be concerned?

S: Well, most people recover fairly easily and smoothly and problems don't come up,
but

it does important that you know who to contact should a problem arise.

Sometimes they'll ask you to contact the doctor's office directly, so it's
important that you

have that number.

Sometimes it'll be your family doctor, or sometimes it would be, like myself, a
nurse

practitioner that they would ask you to contact.

It's important for you to ask you team who they want you to contact in case there's
a

problem, and that you know how to reach them.

E: Okay.

I definitely hope that I don’t have any emergencies or concerns when I go home, so
how do I avoid any complications from happening?

S: That's an important thing to talk about as well.

When you're ready to go home, there may be certain limitations or restrictions to

activities

when you go home.

We talk about safety precautions; we want you up and about as much as possible, but

there may be some limitations to that.

You need to talk to the team about going back to work.

Obviously depending on why you were in the hospital is going to determine how
quickly

you can go back to work.

If you've got a really physical job - like a construction worker, nurse, somebody
doing

heavy lifting and that type of thing - and you've had surgery, you're going to be
off

work a lot longer than somebody who's got a desk job.

So, ask your doctors what limitations there are to you.

Remember that if you've had surgery and you've got an incision, there are usually
limitations

to lifting.

We ask you not to lift anything heavier than ten pounds for about four to six weeks
after

surgery.

We also don't want just pulling you're pushing things, so no shoveling snow, mowing
the lawn,

those types of things.

Now, remember that I said we want you up an about as much as possible.

So, going out to the store to do the grocery shopping to really important, but we
don't

want you pushing the heavy grocery cart or to be the one who's carrying heavy
grocery

bags back to the car.

Okay?

Part 1 ends