According to Stanford Health Care, there are more than 48 million surgical procedures done every year in the U.S. alone. Doctors say that about 10 percent of all surgery patients return for follow-up treatments due to post-surgical complications.

What goes wrong? All sorts of thing, it turns out. Many patients don’t take the necessary precautions during those important few weeks after having surgery.

While a degenerative illness post by Lifton Elevators can help deal with the diagnoses, a post-surgery routine usually includes lots of sleep, very little physical activity, daily medication and regular follow-up appointments at the doctor’s office.

The good news is that the huge majority of people never have to return to the operating room once they’ve been there. A 90 percent “no return” rate is pretty good. Here’s what doctors recommend for people who have just had surgery:

Be Sure to Get Enough Sleep

This is one situation when you’ll hear doctors say that lots of napping is okay. In fact, recovering from surgery is an enormous task for your body and it needs every bit of sleep you can give it. Try to keep a routine bedtime and waking time, but feel free to supplement your regular sleep with daily naps.

Most people find that post-surgery days and weeks are a time when the notice that their bodies are extremely tired. That’s a natural reaction of the organism to the invasive, upsetting event of surgery.

Your Diet is Important

Most doctors tell their post-surgery patients to eat a balanced diet that is skew3ed toward a good amount of lean proteins.

The reason for this is quite complex, scientifically speaking, but the short answer is that protein helps the organs and skin heal more rapidly. Along with getting enough rest, most experts say that a proper diet with plenty of protein is the route to a quick recovery.

Most doctors tell patients to avoid overly spicy foods during the first few weeks after surgery.

Remember to Wash Your Hands Frequently

Nearly every post-surgery patient gets a lecture from either the doctor or a nurse about hand-washing. You’ll probably need to wash your hands much more than usual.

This is all about preventing infections, the grand enemy of all post-surgery patients. Try to get in the habit of washing your hands between four and six times per day after surgery.

Use soap and warm water, and always wash hands before tending to your incision.

Learn How to Care for Incisions

You will no doubt get another lecture on this topic, and it’s a deadly serious one. As incisions heal, the new tissue needs to be left alone and not washed with harsh soaps.

Your doctor might even give you some gently surgical soap specially designed for washing incisions. Be careful not to scrub the area or you might wash away the newly formed tissue.

Also, remember that scabbing is a natural bodily process. There’s no need to remove or be concerned about scabs. Instead, gently wash the entire incision area a few times each day, according to your doctor’s recommendation.