Pre-Surgery Planning for Lymphatic Drainage Treatment

Pre-surgery Lymphatic Care

Preparing for any type of surgical procedure is an excellent opportunity to commit to supporting your body in creating the optimal healing environment possible.

To the body, no matter how wonderfully done, most surgically invasive procedures are perceived as stressful, invasive threats to the body. This is not something that the body is expecting. When this occurs, your body is now in a stress response tending to the area impacted by the procedure and therefore resources are being used for that role.

Resources from the immune system may not be available to deploy if another threat arises, for example, viruses, toxins, etc., so it’s best to strengthen, clear out, and detoxify the lymphatic system (which is the basis of the immune response) so that it is navigating as few other strains as possible when the planned “threat” arrives on the scene. The lymphatic system can definitely juggle, but if we can remove a few of the items in rotation, the better the chances it can focus on the most important items.

This is ideally something that influences your lifestyle in the weeks, if not months, prior to the procedure in order to have as much of an influence over your body’s ability to reap the benefits of the surgery when it occurs, whether it’s aesthetically or medically oriented. That said, if you only have a few days before a procedure, you can definitely create positive change within your ever-resilient body. All progress is progress. No effort goes unnoticed to the body.

Discuss Lymphatic Drainage Treatment with Your Healthcare Provider

We encourage you to talk to your healthcare provider before making any decisions, and we waive any responsibility if you are not an engaged patient with us, we do offer a number of suggestions based on what has historically worked for others and may be something that works for you.

While there are many ways to go about creating that healing state, from our standpoint, there are a few key components that have a major impact, and they are all somehow coming back to LYMPHATIC SUPPORT.

This is not a surprise to you that you’re seeing this as our top recommendation, because you likely found this page investigating lymphatic drainage treatments. To understand why this is so important as a preparatory tool, read our recent wellness blog about the function of the lymphatic system, What You Didn't Know About You Lymphatic System.

BREATHING

Deep breathing. The thoracic duct of the lymphatic system moves a LOT of the lymph. We activate this through diaphragmatic (belly) breaths. Any sort of conscious belly breathing and most types of breathwork will aid in this, but if you need assistance, there are many YouTube-guided breathing videos, like this one here.

LIFESTYLE CHANGES

Consider a low or anti-inflammatory diet. Our Nurse Practitioners offer Nutritional Consulting, which is of course an option. We’d also highly suggest the deeply restorative fast-mimicking diet, Prolon. This allows your body to find the deeply healing stats of fasting without having to stop eating. At the least, reduce or eliminate to the best of your ability: caffeine, alcohol, sugar, gluten, dairy. More tips outlined in our article, Preparing for Your Lymphatic Drainage Treatment.

STRESS REDUCTION

We know, there are a million ways you can reduce stress, but are you actively taking steps to do something? Meditation, walks, nature, therapy, counseling, journaling, eliminating the people/places/things that send your system into a fit, etc. This is not a suggestion we make lightly.

Stress is hugely harmful to the lymphatic system, especially its ability to perform optimally if it perceives that there are impending threats. This is a primal function that has not caught up with the stressors of modern living, but the body doesn’t discern between stressors. Stress takes the body out of its rest/digestion/healing state.

SWEAT

Sauna (we offer different types of healing light in our Infrared Sauna.) Whatever types of movement are available to you, consider being intentional with getting sweaty as many days per week as possible. Not only is sweating great for toxin elimination and moving lymph, but it also reduces stress.

LIVER SUPPORT

The whole system will run better and heal more efficiently once surgery occurs when the liver is not overtaxed by toxins. Using castor oil packs, which we can help you source and offer you the protocol for, the liver receives the right blend of energy and essential fatty acids which encourages an energy-moving detoxifying effect.

LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE TREATMENTS (LDT)

Schedule vacuum or manual lymphatic drainage treatments prior to surgery to get things moving properly. This will allow you to heal better overall. Per your resources, you could do any number of these, including 2-3/month but definitely the week prior to the surgery. Again, pairing it up with a sauna or Colonic will give you an extra boost of detoxing that is so beneficial* to the system. *If you are not in the best health generally, please book a 30 minute consultation so we can recommend a pre-surgery plan for health optimization.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM VIVA WELLNESS

Get to know your VIVA Wellness Lymphatic Drainage Specialist Nurse. Book your 30 minute consultation to meet with her. In reviewing your surgery and current health status, as well as any concerns, she’ll be able to help ease your mind as to what to expect and assuage any stresses about the healing process and the post-surgical lymphatic treatment protocol.

Often when we are feeling stress it’s simply that we are not confident in the quantity and quality of information that we have about something that we know is impending. This is an easy way to gain some peace of mind. That's important because as we know, stress is detrimental to optimal lymphatic and healing function.

We also highly suggest Colonics, IV Vitamin Infusions, and IM Vitamin Injections to support your current health circumstances and goals. Proper and efficient digestion/elimination, as well as detox support, will benefit the lymphatic system. If you’re unsure which of our services would be best for you, we encourage you to discuss with our Nurse in a 30 minute consultation.