It was certainly a shock when the surgeon told me what the operation entailed: two large incisions and collapsing one lung! But my experience was not as bad as I had feared.
I had an epidural inserted before the general anaesthetic, which meant when I awoke I had no wound pain. What I did have was a sore throat and shoulder. The shoulder pain was referred pain from the work they had done on the diaphragm. A TENS machine was attached to my shoulder which lessened the ache. The sore throat was from where the respirator tube had been during surgery. They sprayed my throat with a local anaesthetic which helped a little. After a couple of days the naso-gastric tube was removed from my nose and the soreness went. I was connected to lots of tubes but I was quite comfortable and was able to receive visitors on the same day as the op. My blood pressure and temperature etc were closely monitored overnight.
The next day after a wash and freshen up they got me out of bed (with much rearranging of tubes and wires!) and I went for a short walk down the ward with a posse of nurses and physios carrying my various attachments and me pushing the drip stands. The physiotherapists left me with breathing exercises which were very important to clear both lungs of fluid. After two nights in fast track recovery I was transferred to the intermediate dependency area (IDA) where my every need was handled by my dedicated nurse. I was being fed through a feeding tube which had been passed through my tummy wall directly into my small intestine. I had a complication of a chyle leak (where lymph nodes had been removed) which was allowed to heal by changing me on to a fat free feed for a couple of days. I was soon able to drink water, though most of my fluids came via a drip. I graduated to coffee and then jelly and ice cream within a few days and very soon was on a soft diet of cottage pie type meals.
After 5 days the epidural was removed and I was given a pump to deliver intravenous pain relief on demand. I was able to measure my recovery as I was gradually disconnected from the tubes and wires. I was spending more time out of bed, dozing in my armchair.
After 5 days in the IDA I was transferred to the general surgical ward. I was really happy with the care and expertise of the nursing staff on both the intermediate dependency ward and the surgical ward.
The most difficult part of the recovery process was moving about in bed and getting in and out of the bed, but being able to adjust the bed electrically helped somewhat. This continued to be a difficult process even after I returned home – where we don’t have an electric bed! But I have developed the knack of rolling onto my left (good) side and pushing up (or lowering) from there.
