How long shall I take off work after my husband's colon cancer surgery?

Hi franchad4329 I think my hubby maybe took a week off? After that it was just a case of being organised to avoid lifting anything heavier than a kettle with 1 cup of water in? So he put some milk in a jug for drinks so I wasn’t lifting a 4 pint carton of milk and made sure that anything in a high cupboard that I might need (teabags!) was left on the worktop and similarly anything in a low cupboard was left out too. He used to make a bottle of squash up which I had to drink before he got home (!) and he made sure all the blinds and curtains were open. Basically he tried to pre-empt anything that I might have to reach or stretch for. 
I spent my days downstairs in the lounge so he wasn’t fetching and carrying for me so there was no real point him being at home and losing pay? I think the thing he found hardest was planning what to have for tea when I wasn’t there to do the supermarket shop! 

Hope the op goes well - I’ve attached a link below to a booklet about the operation which has some top tips for what to pack etc.

https://bcuk.adidocdn.dev/Publications/Y1047%20BCUK%20Your%20operation_Web.pdf

Take care

Karen x

Hi Kareno62 that’s so helpful, thank you! I’m finding it useful to focus on controlling the controllable in this situation, so that level of detail is exactly what I need in order to prepare - and just in order to envisage the next few weeks/months really. It’s a bit of a leap into the unknown isn’t it. Hope you are doing ok - thanks again, I really appreciate it.

 franchad4329 You’re very welcome. Something else to bear in mind is that the bowel does not like being manhandled so warn hubby to take it easy on the food front in hospital and try to only have light meals for the first few days. They often recommend following a low residue diet for a few weeks after getting home - it’s not the healthiest of diets but it’s only for a few weeks?

https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_types/bowel-colon-rectum-cancer-forum/f/general/258088/low-residue-diet

 Kareno62 this is brilliant, thank you! We have no details from the hospital yet - I will of course follow those when we get them, but it's so valuable right now to get some insight into these kinds of practicalities. Exactly what I'm after. Thanks again!

It’ll depend on the type of surgery. If it was done robotically or an open surgical procedure. If it was robotically then recovery will be a lot quicker. I had a stage 3 tumour removed robotically from my colon in Feb ‘23. I was in hospital for 4 days post op. It was probably a couple of weeks before I was doing very much. A couple of weeks later I started CAPOX chem for 12 weeks which was hard, particularly the Oxaliplatin  infusion days. 

Many thanks Dewibach . Hope you're doing ok.

I’m good thanks.
I have annual colonoscopies, CT Scans and blood tests. So far so good, 

D

Great to hear. All the best to you

If it's a keyhole procedure those timings might be about right. If it's open surgery then definitely not.

After my open operation, I had help for 3 weeks and needed it. Have to emphasise that everyone is different! I made it back to work after chemo finished, off for around 6 months in total.

It's also a situation that causes you to re-evaluate your life and I actually took early retirement rather than waste life working.

Many thanks T_21 - hope you're getting on ok