Surgery 16th November. Scared

Hi Loving life. I had an LAR with temporary Ileostomy at the end of November 2016. I was in hospital for a week then discharged and told no driving for 6 weeks and not to lift anything heavier than a kettle with 1 cup of water in for 6 weeks. The first couple of weeks might be tough but generally after 5 weeks you should be feeling much better.

Rest when you need to but try to take short walks building up each day. The stoma nurses won’t let you leave hospital until you can confidently deal with changing your stoma bag and they will hopefully advise you on the sort of foods to avoid. There’s lots of great advice and support on the colostomy, Ileostomy board but the best advice I was given was to chew, chew, chew. 

https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_experiences/ileostomy-and-colostomy-discussions-forum

Coming up to xmas I would avoid the Xmas pudding,mince pies and xmas cake as the small dried fruit could clog up your stoma and cause a blockage. If you click on my name you can see from my profile that I had a couple of set backs during my treatment but ignoring that I still made xmas day at my parents and just had a little lie down when I felt tired.

Hopefully some of the others with more recent experience will be along shortly but I hope everything goes well for you - I shall be celebrating my 6 year cancer clear anniversary in a couple of weeks

Take care

Karen x

Hi Karen, 

congratulations on your 6 years cancer free. That’s great news. 
You have given me lots of reassurance in your message and great advice re the dried fruit as I love love love anything with dried fruit in. Just means I’ll have to eat loads of it prior to my surgery so I don’t miss out. 
my emotions are so up and down at the moment. 
I was standing in M&S in floods of tears,  yesterday,  buying a waterproof mattress protector !
keep well x

Hi Loving Life, I had an LAR in September. Straight after was very painful but had lots of meds and within a couple of days was able to walk about without too much pain other than getting out of bed due to the wound. I struggled to eat much at first but don’t worry, your appetite does come back slowly. I was in hospital for 5 days then discharged and like Karen says, you can’t drive or lift anything heavy but I was able to make myself food and get about without too much discomfort. I didn’t have a stoma so can’t comment on that but I’d say you will be fine for Christmas, I was going out after 3-4 weeks after surgery! Good luck. Shell 

Hi Loving Life

I had an anterior resection at the end of August. No stoma though so can't advise on that. After 6 weeks I was feeling pretty healthy and able to do most things without feeling too tired, so hopefully you'll feel fine by Christmas. I'm having chemo now, that's a different story!

My husband has had a permanent ileostomy since 2013 - not cancer, but Ulcerative Colitis - and he can cope with almost everything diet wise, although he avoids too much dried fruit (sorry!) and nuts.

Hope you have a great Christmas.

Sopranina xxx

Thank you so much She’ll for your reply. I feel more optimistic now about Christmas. 
Hooe you continue to make good progress x

Thank you Sopranina. All reassuring. 
m I won’t know if I’ll need chemo until post surgery. Having already had breast cancer only 6 yrs ago I’m really hoping not. X