Turn Discharge Restrictions Into a Dated Board of What Lifts When — Free
Discharge paperwork lists restrictions as prose — no heavy lifting, no driving, keep the dressing dry — with the dates buried in different paragraphs, if they are there at all. Two weeks later the question is not what was said but what still applies today. This board takes each restriction with its date and sorts it into what is in force now, what lifts next, and what has no date and therefore needs a phone call.
The proof surface
Free path: the board computes locally in the browser with no key and no account. Where an AI step helps, any free chat assistant works — Google AI Studio's free tier and Groq's free tier were both no-card and rate-limited when this page was reviewed on 2026-09-13 (limits change; check before you rely on them).
Why the flat version breaks
A folded discharge letter is a memory test: the restrictions are all equally present and none of them is dated against today. Putting each one on a row with a date turns 'no heavy lifting' into 'no heavy lifting until 2 Oct, which is nine days away' — and exposes the rows nobody gave a date, which are the ones people guess about.
How to use the recovery restriction board in four passes
Most discharge sheets give one but not the other. Where a date exists, use it; where it does not, leave the third column off entirely — the board parks undated rows so they stay visible as questions.
You, the ward, the GP, the physio, the employer. Rows owned by somebody else are the ones that quietly do not happen, and an owner makes a follow-up call a specific call.
The board sorts against the date you type, not against the clock, so a printed copy stays accurate to the day it was made. Re-run it after each appointment or change of plan.
A crossed-off row is evidence that the restriction was in force and has lifted. Deleting it loses the record that matters if recovery is later questioned by an insurer or an employer.
SAMPLE DATA, NOT A VERIFIED CLAIM: Northside Day Ward · discharged 12 Sep 2026 · no lifting over 5 kg until 2 Oct · driving from 9 Oct · wound review 24 Sep · two undated rows waiting on a phone call. Replace these values with your own source before you rely on anything.
What breaks first
Typing the restrictions you remember rather than the ones written down
Memory edits towards the comfortable version. Copy the rows from the discharge letter, including the ones you have been ignoring.
Treating a lifted restriction as a cleared one
A date passing is not a clinical assessment. If the wound is not healed or the pain is worse, the date on the board is not permission — call the ward.
Leaving the undated rows parked forever
Parked means 'ask someone', not 'ignore'. Two undated rows are two phone calls; a month later they are the reason a return to work went wrong.
What you pay otherwise
| The usual route | What it leaves out | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| A recovery app with a plan you did not write | Generic milestones for an average procedure, not your discharge letter | subscription, plus your health data on their servers |
| Re-reading the discharge letter daily | Prose with the dates in three different paragraphs | ten minutes a day and a guess |
| Calling the ward to ask what still applies | A nurse reconstructing your plan from notes | a 20-minute hold |
| This page + the free recovery restriction board | Computed in your tab, result on screen before you type anything | $0 |
Try the free recovery restriction board
Nine rows from a knee arthroscopy are already pinned against 23 Sep 2026, with the wound review in the Now column and the two undated restrictions parked on the right. Set today to 30 Sep and the columns reshuffle.
Open the free recovery restriction board →Keep the work if you will use it again
Every row, every date check, the three columns and the undated prompts, plus copy and share-link, with no account.
The on-screen result is free and repeatable forever. The one-time tier adds a tangible file you keep and the saved history that comes with it; it never removes or degrades the free result.
Boundary: This organises the instructions you were given; it is not medical advice and it does not know whether a restriction should be lifted. A date passing is not a clinical assessment — contact the ward, your GP or the number on your discharge letter before you change anything.