After surgery
- Thread starter brad1025
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Hi brad,
I had the same on the 5th dec 2012. I went back to work at the end of march. Mine was emergency surgery though and I lost a lot of weight and stamina. I'm an electrician by trade and also quite active. You just need to see how you get on.
If you feel good to go then crack on and get back to work,watch the lifting though, the last thing you want is a hernia or similar to put you back on a sick note!
I had the same on the 5th dec 2012. I went back to work at the end of march. Mine was emergency surgery though and I lost a lot of weight and stamina. I'm an electrician by trade and also quite active. You just need to see how you get on.
If you feel good to go then crack on and get back to work,watch the lifting though, the last thing you want is a hernia or similar to put you back on a sick note!
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When I had my ileostomy they said I should be back to normal in 6 - 8 weeks except that I must wait longer than that to do any heavy lifting or any activity that involves bending down.
The most common time frame you'll hear for recovering from a major surgery is 6 - 8 weeks, but there's always the possibility of complications. If it's at all possible, ask for flexibility. Then if you feel great after 6 weeks, start work, but if you have complications, be prepared that you made need longer. It's also good to build up your activity level gradually. You can start this right after the surgery by getting up and walking as soon as you can, unless your doctors give you specific instructions not to for some reason, but that's unlikely. As long as all has gone well, doctors will recommend you walk as soon as possible.
When you do go back to work, if there's any way to do that gradually as well that could help. E.g. if you can go back to work but only do aspects of your work that don't involve lifting, or if you can start working but only part-time for a couple of weeks that could help. Which of course will depend on your employers and the nature of your work.
The most common time frame you'll hear for recovering from a major surgery is 6 - 8 weeks, but there's always the possibility of complications. If it's at all possible, ask for flexibility. Then if you feel great after 6 weeks, start work, but if you have complications, be prepared that you made need longer. It's also good to build up your activity level gradually. You can start this right after the surgery by getting up and walking as soon as you can, unless your doctors give you specific instructions not to for some reason, but that's unlikely. As long as all has gone well, doctors will recommend you walk as soon as possible.
When you do go back to work, if there's any way to do that gradually as well that could help. E.g. if you can go back to work but only do aspects of your work that don't involve lifting, or if you can start working but only part-time for a couple of weeks that could help. Which of course will depend on your employers and the nature of your work.
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The heavy lifting could be an issue down the road, even after recovery. Make sure you talk to your doc about getting a hernia belt at the very least. Recovery after surgery should be quick... I did a 4k hike just over a month after surgery and prior to surgery I wasn't even able to walk up stairs unassisted. If you are in good shape now, your recovery should be easier.
Good luck!
2
Good luck!
2
Hey brad,
Losing the weight is a killer, I couldn't believe how quickly it came off and how long it took to put back on. Being a bloke and weighing less than my misses wasn't doing much for my ego lol
Tell you what though mate, once I had the op I felt like a different person inside. Have had one small flare in a year since, otherwise it's been a whole lot better. None of the crap I used to put up with on a daily basis! Here's hoping you get the same!
You just gotta see how it goes, you will know when the time is right to go back to work, take it slow, I was itching to get back and earn some much needed money and more importantly feel normal again. Tell the people you work with and let them help you get back into it at your pace. Listen to your body and get as many nutrients in as poss without doing yourself a mischief. I was on about 8 small meals a day with snacks in between. All as safe as poss, lots of rice, pasta, meat, fish, jelly babies, potatoes etc .anything high calorie worked for me. It's gonna take you a while for your body to adapt to not having a working large bowel. Hydration was a massive deal for me. All you fluid is normally re absorbed in the large bowel and you will have to let your small one adapt to start doing what it needs to. I have about 1.4 m of intestine left and I reckon it took about 6 months for it to start absorbing enough fluid to make me pee 3 times a day. Get lots of electrolytes/diarolyte in. I was taking 4 sachets a a day and it helps loads, do not though drink loads and loads thinking you are getting enough fluid, it had the opposite effect for me and was washing out all the nutrients I had eaten before I absorbed them. Keep it to small amounts and often. I ended up drinking 3 litres of water a day thinking i was doing right and wondering why my weight was going down! Drink before eating, and use loperamide fluid if poss as works a treat to slow the transition down!
Sorry man to go on but I have a whole load of stuff that I found out that maybe could help you!
Keep me posted mate, would be interested to hear how your getting on. When's the op?
Losing the weight is a killer, I couldn't believe how quickly it came off and how long it took to put back on. Being a bloke and weighing less than my misses wasn't doing much for my ego lol
Tell you what though mate, once I had the op I felt like a different person inside. Have had one small flare in a year since, otherwise it's been a whole lot better. None of the crap I used to put up with on a daily basis! Here's hoping you get the same!
You just gotta see how it goes, you will know when the time is right to go back to work, take it slow, I was itching to get back and earn some much needed money and more importantly feel normal again. Tell the people you work with and let them help you get back into it at your pace. Listen to your body and get as many nutrients in as poss without doing yourself a mischief. I was on about 8 small meals a day with snacks in between. All as safe as poss, lots of rice, pasta, meat, fish, jelly babies, potatoes etc .anything high calorie worked for me. It's gonna take you a while for your body to adapt to not having a working large bowel. Hydration was a massive deal for me. All you fluid is normally re absorbed in the large bowel and you will have to let your small one adapt to start doing what it needs to. I have about 1.4 m of intestine left and I reckon it took about 6 months for it to start absorbing enough fluid to make me pee 3 times a day. Get lots of electrolytes/diarolyte in. I was taking 4 sachets a a day and it helps loads, do not though drink loads and loads thinking you are getting enough fluid, it had the opposite effect for me and was washing out all the nutrients I had eaten before I absorbed them. Keep it to small amounts and often. I ended up drinking 3 litres of water a day thinking i was doing right and wondering why my weight was going down! Drink before eating, and use loperamide fluid if poss as works a treat to slow the transition down!
Sorry man to go on but I have a whole load of stuff that I found out that maybe could help you!
Keep me posted mate, would be interested to hear how your getting on. When's the op?
You got loads of time Dude,
All you got to worry about is getting yourself fit. The rest will fall into place
All you got to worry about is getting yourself fit. The rest will fall into place
Hi Brad
Lifting heavy items is definitely something you will need to be careful about and should take advice on from your surgeon. Recovery time depends on various factors including size/type of incision. Some patients are out of hospital in under a week but for me it was closer to two. My stoma nurse visited me shortly afterwards and was concerned when I lifted a full kettle to make her a cup of coffee. She advised me to take it really carefully. As grt73 says, you don't want to risk a hernia and having longer off of work. I was driving again after six weeks - as soon as I could do an emergency stop without feeling any pain.
How will you feel after the operation? Short term - from my experience - the day or so after the operation you will probably feel great as the cocktail of drugs will still be working. You may then have a "low" day when you don't feel as good. I was warned this was likely to happen on day three after the operation and they were right. As long as you know what to expect you can be prepared for it and not worry unduly. Long term - I'm probably fitter now than I have been in years. I can lift heavy items and go for a 5 mile walk everyday.
I hope the op goes well and by this time next week you'll be tucking into good food and rebuilding your strength.
Lifting heavy items is definitely something you will need to be careful about and should take advice on from your surgeon. Recovery time depends on various factors including size/type of incision. Some patients are out of hospital in under a week but for me it was closer to two. My stoma nurse visited me shortly afterwards and was concerned when I lifted a full kettle to make her a cup of coffee. She advised me to take it really carefully. As grt73 says, you don't want to risk a hernia and having longer off of work. I was driving again after six weeks - as soon as I could do an emergency stop without feeling any pain.
How will you feel after the operation? Short term - from my experience - the day or so after the operation you will probably feel great as the cocktail of drugs will still be working. You may then have a "low" day when you don't feel as good. I was warned this was likely to happen on day three after the operation and they were right. As long as you know what to expect you can be prepared for it and not worry unduly. Long term - I'm probably fitter now than I have been in years. I can lift heavy items and go for a 5 mile walk everyday.
I hope the op goes well and by this time next week you'll be tucking into good food and rebuilding your strength.
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Please don't be worried if after surgery you feel like you've been run over by a bus. I've had similar experiences to highlandsrock - a couple of days after the surgery, the anaesthetic wears off and the pain can increase at that point. I think it's worth being mentally prepared - you will have pain, and you'll have a general feeling of malaise and nausea from the anaesthetic. But you will also see that, if all goes to plan, you'll quickly start feeling better.
Medication can really make a difference to the earliest, hardest stage of recovery - getting on the right pain meds, anti nausea meds and something to help you sleep will make this period go much more smoothly. Tell the nurses if you're in pain, if you feel sick or if you can't sleep (all of which usually happen for at least a few days/nights after surgery) as they will usually have instructions from your doctors about extra meds you can take if you're feeling bad. The nights will be worse than the days.
You probably won't want to eat at all at first. If you're trying to gain weight, don't panic at this. You should get your appetite back pretty quickly. If you can't face eating, drink a lot of high-calorie drinks to keep your weight up - you might find this easier than eating a lot of solid food.
In my experience recovery should be linear - day by day you should feel noticeably better. If at any point you feel like you're not improving, let a doctor know right away.
Once you get discharged from hospital, you'll be so glad to be home where it's comfortable and have your own bed and your own food, you will probably find you feel a lot better.
You will start to feel like a human being again. Maybe after a few weeks or so. After that, you'll suddenly find you've resumed normal life again, hopefully feeling a lot better than before the surgery.
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My surgeon told me the same thing at my follow-up appointment. I'd not heard it before. I'd assumed that because I still had nearly all my small intestine left, absorbing from food wouldn't be a problem. But I'm very underweight and my surgeon made a point of telling me not to drink too much as I'd flush the food out before I could get the goodness and calories out of it.
But you'll also find a lot of advice that says with an ileostomy you should drink a lot (and eat a lot of salt) because you'll be losing more fluid. :confused2:
I generally drink a lot and plan to keep doing so, but if my stoma output gets too watery (it's usually "porridge consistency", which is how it's supposed to be) that might be a sign to cut back a bit on the fluids.
