Hi everyone, I’ve had my surgery following my diagnosis of bowel cancer and just wanted to share my experience now that I’m home
i went in on Friday morning for a right hem-icolectmy and the additional removal of a small unknown anomaly.
friday - I came around in the recovery room to be informed the operation was successful and that everything they set out to removed has been removed, unfortunately they couldn’t do everything through keyhole so they had to make a larger opening, but that’s ok, that’s was always a risk
i was moved to the ward where the hospital staff could not have done any more for me to make my stay as good as possible,
day 1
(Saturday) after the op - all tubes had been removed apart from my morphine reed which they let me have control of, I tried to eat small amounts but struggled and even began to sweat when I ate, but got through a small amount
the physio paid me a visit to go through some breathing exercises which really helped, I was able to get up out of bed, and move around a little,
day 2 (Sunday)
I was able to eat a little more, and as I was able to gingerly walk around they were happy to remove my catheter, although they still wanted to measure what was coming out so I couldn’t go to the loo just yet,
I tried a short walk, about 60 metres and I was absolutely knackered, I think that’s when it really dawned on me what my short term limitations are going to be
i started passing wind which was apparently a good sign,
they removed the morphine drip and continued with regular pain relief and topped up as needed if I requested it
day 3 (Monday)
saw the physio again and managed to go up and down a set of stairs with no problems, now eating 3 small meals a day and using the toilet for peeing, kept on farting too
day 4 (Tuesday)
normal routine but with the addition of a laxative to help me along, and didn’t it just to that!
the first time was difficult as it’d been a while, but after that I was back and forth for a number of hours,
day 5 (Wednesday)
they were happy enough with my progress to allow me to go home, I know it’s going to be a long road to a full recovery but the first major hurdle is out of the way
if I’d give any advise about your hospital stay it’s that you should not be worried about asking for pain relief, even if they’ve just given you some and it wasn’t effective enough, just ask
Andysel
Thanks for sharing your experience. It will help lots of people. You are doing really well
I had keyhole and open, they lifted my bowel to get at it. Anyway when I woke up the nurse said what a lovely neat scar you will have. I said really why. She said that they’d glued it. I was imagining some kind of super glue, if I sneezed would I pop it. I’d like to say that it was the morphine but it wasn’t.
When I had my follow up I said to the surgeon how pleased I was that he’d glued it and how neat it was I didn’t realise that I could be glued.
He looked at me speechless for a moment
You were stitched first !
Ha ha. I felt such an idiot.
Thought this may make you smile
No laughing it’ll hurt
Ann
