Sigmoid cancer pre-operation week

Hi James ,

Welcome to the forum and I am so sorry to hear about your diagnosis but wish you every success with the surgery .

It was my mum who had the surgery. Her surgery was for a right side ascending tumour and she had open surgery . She had no stoma so no management of that post surgery but if you should require one is a wealth of knowledge on how to adjust in the early days . Please just let us know if that is appropriate. 

Wide fitting bed wear was good for my my. So nothing bothered her scar . Post op she had a few days in high dependency as she had an epidural and the anaesthetic staff monitor them for a few days . They took to do with her dietary needs regarding getting her Bowel up and going again . Once she was transferred to a surgical ward they changed her pain relief to oral meds . Takes a wee while to get the balance right . She did sleep a lot but was able to walk to the toilet etc . We were guided by the staff but also took in some soft Desserts but you can speak to the staff . 

Something to entertain yourself with , devices etc with extra long cables so your not twisting . 

For your family , I personally found seeing my mum dependent on equipment hard and she looked so exhausted and slept loads . Much later she was able to inform me she had no memory of it at all . So it can look a wee bit worse than she was experiencing it . 

The good news , each day made a big difference and a couple of weeks later she was safely home making excellent progress . Her Bowel worked quickly and has never really caused her any issues in the following years .

All the very best ,

Court 

Hi ,

Welcome to the forum. Do you know whether the operation will be keyhole or open surgery? I had sigmoid cancer last year; My sigmoid colon was removed with keyhole surgery a year ago and today I live almost as if it never happened (almost, not quite).

How much help will you have at home after surgery? For the first few weeks you should not lift anything heavier than a half-full kettle, and no driving for 4-6 weeks. And you will get tired very quickly, although that will improve as the weeks go on. I live on my own, so from my experience I found it useful to thoroughly clean the house and do the laundry, make sure the food cupboard is well-stocked and also that anything stored in a high cupboard that you may need in the first four weeks, is rearranged to be within easy reach (stretching will be painful).

And as Court had said, loose-fitting PJ's is very important. Your tummy will be sore so you don't want anything to irritate the wound.

As for the family: If they want to help, let them. Especially in the first weeks you will not be able to do much physically and you will get tired. 

All the best for the surgery, and let us know what happens.

Yolande

Dear. Court,

Thank you very much for help. I was told it is tough after surgery but I could not get details as you mentioned. Based on the experience of waiting for surgery, I already felt the hardship looming. I will share my experience afterward and help people in similar situations.

Best wishes,

James 

Dear Yolande,

Thank you for sharing your experience. I was told it will be keyhole surgery if nothing seriously wrong after getting there. I am confident to get back for full recovery. One thing is not clear is that how to entertain myself using the digital world, especially when I am not feeling good during recovery. 

Best wishes,

Hi

I, also would like to welcome you to the community I'm The Bodach that court mentioned. If the end result is a stoma whether permanent or temporary you will be very welcome to join us over in poo corner sorry I do mean the Ileostomy, colostomy, urostomy and any other stoma support group where we do in fact openly discuss the colour of our poo, it's consistency and of course not forgetting wind and odour, we do talk about other boring things as well.

As for keeping yourself amused whilst in recovery the answers simple keep popping into the groups and joining into the discussions the time soon passes.

Clothing a size bigger is a must paying particular attention to the position of your scar and getting clothing that either sits above or below it not on it.

Keep in touch and we'll get you through the initial stages and well on the road to recovery in no time at all.

Ian

Dear Ian,

Thank you for encouraging. I was told it will be a temporary stoma depending on how close the cut to rectal section. It is true we could share our stories and enjoy every moment we have.

Best wishes,

Dear James

Firstly, I'm really sorry you find yourself on here, as wonderful as most people are on here I think we'd all prefer not to be on here.  Much of what I say I've posted before, people must be really bored of reading it and it will repeat alot of the good advice offered by others.  I was diagnosed the week before Xmas '17, there is no good time.  You are in THE worst part by far in my opinion.  I have no idea of your age - but I had to go and by some pj's, I got the cheapest possible - short/T-shirt combination - ans although a 34w I went for XL, definitely go for a size up on what you are.  Hospitals are HOT, although I was admitted in January it was at sauna level, I spent most of the time in the shorts & nothing else.  Prior to going in DO NOT GOOGLE anything.  I looked afterwards & found there's some very weird and not very wonderful stuff. If you have any questions, and you will do,  ask the team who will care for you, or the support lines on here.  Google is to be avoided at all costs, I looked after surgery.  My favourite was a woman living on the California/Arizona border.  She advised giving up all food completely and sitting outside for 8 hours a day to take in the 'nutrients sent by nature', clearly she had never wintered in Liverpool!   

Keep a paper/pen handy & jot questions down as they ‘occur’ to you; you don’t have to ask them all.  Make sure someone goes with you to all meeting armed with pen/paper - ask them to note down what is said - especially any letters/numbers referring to your diagnosis.  There will be a colorectal nurse present, make sure you get their name, number & email address, they are incredibly useful people.

There are a couple of, I think, important things to consider.  A cancer diagnosis means you are entitled to free prescriptions, if you don't have them already book an appointment with your GP to get the necessary form.  Consider sleeping tablets.  I’d never taken them in my life, but got some from my GP & took one on a couple of occasions.  You will need to get some sleep. Try to keep busy on routine things - only an idiot would say don't worry, but I'm sure the reality will be better than you expect.  You may  find yourself getting irked by trivial things.  I was diagnosed at Xmas - the radio kept telling me it was, ‘the most wonderful time of year’, I didn’t agree.  Also I suddenly noticed the sheer amount of ‘cancer adverts’ one encounters on a daily basis, they suddenly seemed to be everywhere.  I also got exasperated with the hand holding/head to one side type offering advice such as ‘be brave’ as if it was a conscious choice to get cancer.

Try to focus on things you do as a family.  For my family it is football.  I went back to Anfield a month to the day after surgery - recovery is that quick.  The surgery was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be, the most painful moment was when I persuaded my wife, a hardworking doctor, to take a break from looking after me and go with the rest of the family to see LFC Vs Spurs.  Mo Salah scored a brilliant goal in injury time and I inadvisably tried to leap off the sofa in delight; BIG mistake, that hurt.  

Hospitals are hot, the Royal Liverpool was at sauna level in January!  This and the fact you will hardly eat anything at first meant drinks are really important.  The g/f of one of my son's had a relation who had just had the same operation - she visited armed with frozen fruit drinks one day & a Costa to go go another; both wonderful.  I had the op on a Wednesday and left hospital on the Saturday, three days later.  You will be far more comfortable at home.  Once home you are going to sleep, a great deal.  It was a week before I went out of the house, but I was back to walking 10,000 steps a day within three weeks.  I also took up running to raise funds for Cancer research, I absolutely detest running with a passion.

The period which you are enduring is by far the worst.  Things DO get better.  In January 18 my thoughts/worries were everywhere, but they soon returned to focusing only on how  the Reds were doing.  The waiting is awful but somehow it passes.  Now I think in the future if 2018 is mentioned my first thoughts will not be about the diagnosis & surgery, instead they will be those fantastic nights when Liverpool rolled back the years and destroyed Man City & Roma in Europe.  Since surgery we've also travelled widely including SE Asias, S. America & Antarctica and of course Madrid; so don't believe all the post-treatment horror stories.

 The post-surgery time was for me far easier than the weeks before, I hated the pain killers so stopped taking them, and I am definitely at the 'wimp end' of any pain scale.  Hope everything goes as well as possible - if there's anything I can help with feel free to ask. 

YNWA

Mike

Dear Mike,

Thank you for sharing your experience with me. I stopped jogging two weeks ago. I ran once a week, 10 km; occasionally half marathon individually. What I am concerned about is could I get back jogging? It looks I could do that after recovery. I will follow the advice of my carers. 

Best wishes,

Dear James

Why did you stop jogging?  Try to get active asap after surgery, the RLUH had me on my feet the day after surgery and walking around the ward the day after that and then home on day 3.  A month after I was driving to Anfield, walking a klm from car to ground & watching the match.  I was entering a 10k beginning of May but injured my foot! The more you do, the easier it gets - abit obvious I know

YNWA

Mike

Hi ,

Jog all you want up to the surgery. The stronger and fitter you are going into it, the better. As for afterwards, it will take a while to get strength back but you should definitely be able to jog again afterwards. Same as for Mike, the physio had me on my feet the day after surgery, and by the time I was discharged I walked (or slowly shuffled) long distances down the hospital corridors. At home I would go for a walk every day, slowly increasing the pace and distance. Now I am no jogger, not ever, but I am a keen long distance walker, and about a month after surgery I easily managed a 6 mile walk and some longer distances soon after that.

All the best,

Yolande