Post-surgery care in La Jolla
Coming home to La Jolla after surgery
Three major hospitals sit within a few minutes of most La Jolla homes, so the surgery is the easy part to arrange. The hard part is the house you go home to, and the first week in it.
Licensing and caregiver screening
Licensed Home Care OrganizationCDSS license #374700397
Caregivers on the state registryLive Scan fingerprint check (CA DOJ and FBI) and TB test
Owned by a registered nurseMildred Kiminyei, RN
The first 72 hours
Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, UC San Diego Health’s Jacobs Medical Center, and Scripps Green Hospital all send patients home quickly after planned procedures. A joint replacement that once meant a week in a bed now often means home in a day or two, still sore, still unsteady, and on medication that makes thinking slow.
In those first three days a caregiver is mostly watching and steadying: walking with your parent to the bathroom rather than letting them try it alone, keeping water within reach, making food that can actually be eaten, and noticing the things that send people back to hospital. Uncontrolled pain. Not drinking. A dressing that looks wrong. Confusion that wasn’t there yesterday.
Stairs, showers, and where the bed goes
This is where La Jolla houses make things harder than they need to be. A split-level home with the only full bathroom upstairs is a genuine problem for someone who has been told to avoid stairs, or who can only manage them with help.
- Ask the surgical team, before discharge, whether stairs are allowed at all and how many times a day
- Set up the first two weeks on the level that has a bathroom, even if that means a rented bed in the dining room
- Sort out showering in advance: a bench, a hand-held head, and someone there. Most people are not allowed to soak a wound
- Clear one wide path from bed to bathroom and leave a light on it all night
Appointments, therapy, and prescriptions
The week after surgery fills up fast: a wound check, a follow-up with the surgeon, and often home health physical therapy two or three times a week. A caregiver drives to the appointments, gets your parent in and out of the car safely, and is in the house when the therapist visits so the exercises actually get done on the days in between.
Prescriptions are worth arranging before discharge. Pain medication in particular can take a day to fill. Parking near the Village pharmacies is tight, which is one more errand that is easier handed off.
What we need from the hospital
When you call, the discharge paperwork answers most of our questions: the current medication list, weight-bearing instructions, activity limits, the wound care plan, and which home health agency is picking up the nursing and therapy visits. If you have a discharge date, call before it. Care that starts the day your parent comes home is far smoother than care that starts after the first bad night.
Common questions
Do you do the wound care and the nursing visits?
No. Those are medical, and they come from a home health agency, usually paid by Medicare after a hospital stay. We do the non-medical side: bathing, dressing, meals, walking, transportation, and being there between visits. Many families in La Jolla have both at once.
When should I call if surgery is already scheduled?
As soon as you have a date. We can do the in-home consultation before the operation, when your parent can still tell us how they normally do things, and have the care plan and schedule ready for the day of discharge.
Request a free in-home consultation
Tell us what’s going on and we’ll call you back to talk it through and set up a visit at the home. The consultation is free.
If it’s urgent, call instead of using the form.
- (858) 380-9599
- love@pendaseniorhomecare.com
- Office hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Care available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week