Surgery tomorrow 28/01/2015

[Brandonl303]

Hello,

I have surgery tomorrow to remove part of my small intestine, very nervous and was wondering if you would be able to advise how i may feel when i wake up

Thanks
Brandon

 

[DJW]

Hi Brandon.

Nerves are normal.

I wake up very much out of it. The first thing I'm asked is my pain level. I'm in pain and you will be too but pain meds are wonderful. You will sleep a lot.

They get me out of bed the next morning.

 

[hawkeye]

I was in bed the day of and most of the day after. I had surgery on Thursday and was up for a walk (assisted) Friday evening.

I had a pain pump - if you have one of these make sure you press the button enough, apparently I wasn't but I didn't feel any pain either - just when I shifted my weight in bed. The pump is set up to give pain meds every few minutes.

I slept a lot for a day to a day and a half following the surgery.

 

[worriedboy]

Good luck I hope it all goes well and that you recover quickly

 

[Grotbags]

I was worried too before my surgery, about six weeks ago now, in fact, it was what I was most worried about.
I was pretty out of it, although awake, I was pretty incoherent, I was in a high dependency unit for two days post surgery, which is normal.
I was constantly monitored for pain, I had morphine on tap, plus paracetamol, and Tramadol once the morphine was stopped.
You'll probably sleep a lot at first.
I was encouraged to get up and walk about with the help of a physio nurse, she came three times to make sure I was walking.
I also had a dedicated stoma nurse, but not sure if your getting a stoma, so may not apply to you.
In all I was in for six days, the worst thing was the boredom !.

 

[leezapeza]

U shouldn't be too bad j gave a bowek resection late nov and they put me in the morphne pump where I could press the button to deliver me morphine u could do it every 5 mins but be careful it might make u feel sick I threw up and chocked on the first night after surgery and ended up with a nasel gastric tub up me nose for couple days cose h couldn't stop vomiting but u should be fine

 

[UnXmas]

How you feel when you wake up will depend on what pain medication you are given. If you're on strong pain meds, you may wake up feeling fine, but in a false, euphoric kind of way. Less pain meds, you will hurt, but you will be much more with it and thinking clearly. Honestly, I prefer the latter, as it means you don't have to withdraw from the pain meds later on.

But surgeries vary so much, it's hard to say how you'll feel; I've had surgeries where I went home the same day, I've had surgeries where I had days in Intensive Care when I was awake but have no memory of it.

Do you know how long they expect your surgery to last for? If you can tell us that, it will be much easier to predict how your recovery will be. If it's a straightforward resection of a small amount of bowel, it shouldn't be more than an hour or two, and you may not need very strong painkillers. You'll wake up sore, probably nauseous, but will become alert and with it quite quickly.