Swollen tummy where the bruising/wound sites are

Hi. I hope you're doing well.  The only advice I'd give is to take it easy.  I had my op in June 2024, I was pretty much standing most of my days at home as I found sitting or laying left like my abdomen was being pulled internally. However, by doing so I didn't rest very well or very much at all. I should have rested more, returned to work 2 months later, again not ideal. My GP thought I was crazy!! But I wanted to get back to some normality. Anyway, what I'm saying is, go for your walk, but don't over do it! I felt like I suffered more afterwards once at work! Take your time to heal fully! Lots of love  I'm very impatient too!! 

Hi Jd,

Thanks for your reply. I am by nature very active, and I was up and walking within hours of my surgery, and haven't stopped since. I fear I might have overdone it a bit by walking around half a mile with no rest in the middle, just a very few days after surgery. I had very slight swelling post-op but it seemed to increase after that bout of walking, and it hasn't gone down since despite my not walking as much at a time since then. 

I went back on the paracetamol, 4 x daily, to see if that would help the swelling even though I don't need them for any pain. Doesn't seem to have made any difference in the swelling even after nearly a week of 4 x daily

I am planning to return to work in 6 weeks from surgery, ie in 4 weeks from now. Am hoping it won't need to be longer. I also have a long drive (Devon to France via Folkestone) coming up in early July and that's the highlight of my year every summer, so I'm hoping this swelling isn't anything serious portending. I have been reading you can get an incisional hernia (nobody told me that when they said I had to rest and build up walking slowly, but they didn't tell me why!) so I hope that this isn't one of those!!

It's the only thing bothering me atm. I have had almost no pain throughout but the main incision (around 4cms) is still a little tender to the touch, and the swelling is over and around this area, despite the actual visible bruising now fading a lot. 

I plan to ring my surgeon's secretary on Monday and try and get some info. I cannot get to an appointment atm as I cannot drive and a taxi would cost a fortune as I am five miles from the nearest town where my GP is, and even further from the hospital and further still from the cottage hospital where my consultant is based, which is several towns away. GP will be no use as they will ask me to send a photo of my swelling which isn't going to show them the size, shape or firmness of it, plus they will then triage me!! I would rather go to the pharmacy! However, direct to the surgeon's team is likely to be the best in the first instance, I figure.

I expect this is normal but as it didn't happen after my hysterectomy and as it's still a firm swelling after almost two weeks, and no sign of it diminishing, I'm starting to get a little concerned.

Otherwise I have no other issues that I know of. Since I started sleeping in 4-hour bouts rather than 2-hour bouts a few nights ago, I no longer need to lie down in the day and don't feel tired, although I tend to be ready to head to bed by around 10.30pm which is at least an hour earlier than normal. Nothing hurts any more except that incision and the swelling around it. I've been doing quite a lot of sitting (on the laptop) and a bit of walking (not as much as that half-mile day!) and not much standing and a reasonable amount of lying down but almost all at night since a few days ago. 

I don't know what "overdoing it" means as I live my life in the fast lane and am not used to having to even think about resting! - if I want to watch TV I sit down to watch it. If I am at work I am on the go the whole four-hour shift. If I want to walk my dogs I walk them. This is pre-surgery. So I don't really know how to rest when I don't feel tired. I am hoping that sitting at the laptop for three hours or so each day is resting, but then I also read you shouldn't sit too long either!! Argghh! 

Anyway - I'll ring the relevant person/people on Monday as a starter, and see if they can either put my mind at rest (eg, yes that's normal and you might be swollen for many weeks) or else ask me to get in somehow to see them so that they can look at it in person.

Well, I phoned up this morning to the urology cancer nurse department, and left a message as requested. Very sweet nurse called Margaret rang me back around 4pm - she is a colleague of my kidney nurse Taona - and was very reassuring. She checked all my symptoms - was there any redness, fever? etc etc etc - and she doesn't think it's anything like a hernia which was one worry I had had. I explained that this isn't normal for me but that I appreciate it is a different surgery area from my hysterectomy. She mentioned adhesions and I said, I was sure I remembered my surgeon mentioning that he had cleared out a bit of adhesion, and that I also wondered if this was why I had a bit of soreness under my belly button post-surgery, as I had figured out for myself over the last two years that I possibly had some adhesions under there, despite massaging it a lot in the early days. 

She was reassuring and said/implied that it should show some improvement in yet another couple of weeks, in terms of both the swelling and the tenderness of the incision. She confirmed my follow-up is six weeks, thus another 4 weeks to wait. She said if I felt comfortable enough I could try driving in two weeks from now, as I pointed out I am due back to work in 4 weeks from now and if I am only driving for the first time on the day I go back to work, I wouldn't feel very confident! (I am sincerely hoping my incision tenderness and swelling is GONE by 4 weeks from now or I shall be questioning whether I really ought to be going back to work 6 weeks after surgery!) I told her, frankly I wouldn't feel very comfortable to drive even if they told me I could do so right now! - I feel perfect in every way (not even any tiredness at any time) and it's literally only this swelling and tenderness that is bothering me and making my belly uncomfortable. I'm now less worried about damaging the internal kidney incision that I cannot see, and much more worried about rubbing my incision and making it even more tender than already. 

I did go as a passenger out for a meal last night - my partner (who has gone home today) and I went, with my neighbour driving, for a Sunday roast. I sat in the front passenger seat and managed to arrange my seatbelt so that it was "under the bump" and "over the bump" (I've never been pregnant but I know that's what they tell pregnant ladies ) and it wasn't uncomfortable. In the driver's seat the belt wouldn't even touch my swollen area, but I would still be worried that it might slip. In every other way I could drive perfectly well as no discomfort anywhere else - but I still have enough food in the freezer and fridge that I don't actually need to shop for probably another two weeks anyway, other than the couple of perishables I can get my neighbour to pick up for me when she does her Sainsbury's shop.

Margaret said she will relay the notes she made during our conversation, to my surgeon, and could find out from him what adhesions he removed, if that might be something to do with it, and anything else he has to add which might explain the swelling. 

However, I already feel reassured for now. I can sit tight for another two weeks and keep hoping that this will improve. I am normally very positive so I will exercise my Positive Thinking and try and think the swelling away! - I know it won't help if I keep stressing over what is actually a pretty minor "side effect" compared with what I could be experiencing. 

That one phone call can make all the difference to our worries.

I am happy u feel more settled now.

We all heal at different rates. So take your time and if u don't feel ready for work when the time comes just take a couple more weeks off. 

It took a while walking Phoebe. My favourite leash was the hands free. She's  a puller. I prefer the round the waist one and obviously I couldn't wear it. But now I am able to..mind u she us a border collie and brilliant off lead....been doing more off lead training on her walk today..I was well proud if her. 

So take you time...slow and steady...

Hugs sweetheart 

I didn't realise you had a Phoebe as well!! (I might have told you my big girl is called Phoebe?) 

I would prefer not to take extra time off work but if I have to, I have to. My work involves a lot of lifting, pulling, climbing, running back and forth and carrying stuff, and it's not a job I can do on any level without at least a great amount of this. I often work alone so it would be impossible really...you only have to get a customer ask for a frozen baguette and you are lifting a heavy freezer lid, or someone needing a jar of coffee that some other goon hasn't thought to put on the shop shelf even though there are half a dozen of them on the top shelf in the stockroom which necessitates a step ladder and a bit of reaching, leaning and stretching... so no, I need to be as fully fit as I'm ever going to be, before letting myself loose on that shop!!

I have to be fit for my long drive at the beginning of July so I'm working towards that. I have plenty of weeks yet, to improve. 

Keep on persisting!

Sounds a pretty good diet you have! I eat organic and local as much as possible but I did find the COOK meals pretty good post surgery just for ease when feeling poorly .. not organic but no additives etc. I decanted into glass dishes before cooking. And ate with frozen veg. And organic milk and cheese etc via Just Eat from a nearish supermarket. Sometimes we have to compromise a little to manage the practicalities. I must investigate French Click! 

I was the same after my hysterectomy with the Kershaws meals. Pretty free of additives, but I did need to add lots of veg to them as they only come with a handful of peas and carrots. But they served me well at that time. It's since then that I've gone off cooking in plastic. So microwave meals are off my menu now. I have seen the COOK meals and I don't recall if they are oven or/and microwave but my switch to turn on the electric to my oven, is in an awkward place low at the back of a cupboard that involves my having to twist and bend to reach it, and it's awkward in the normal way but out of the question atm so I had planned ahead to get everything in that I could cook on the gas hob and didn't need the oven or even microwave for. 

I haven't always eaten that healthily. If I had, I wouldn't now weigh almost twice as much as I weighed in my skinny 20s!! But I figure it's never too late to make changes and I started doing so in a small way about 5 years ago and ramped it up around 18 months/2 years ago. 

I have milk delivered (in glass) so that's sorted. I eat a lot of eggs and bananas but everything else pretty much, I don't need to be running out for as I'm well stocked up!

I love French Click! If I wait until a discount gets emailed to me, I can get 10% or even 15% off a £50 order. They usually send this offer a couple of times every month. It offsets the delivery charge which is around £5-£8 depending on the day/time of day. It does work out of course dearer than it would be in France (my 1 litre cartons of soup which I get four portions out of, and cost me around 1 euro 50 max in LeClerc, can cost between £2.99 and £5.15 depending on the brand and variety.) but the products are pure, they don't add things like carragen (?) gum, sunflower oil, or anything unnecessary to their soups and very minimally salt and sugar; it is literally loads of various vegetables in each variety. I used to treat myself to a box from French Click about every couple of months, but atm I am going to order more frequently until I am freely able to get to the shops again. I can't get grated Emmental or blocks of Emmental anywhere else here anyway, so those are always on my French Click list! I have never shopped for groceries online apart from French Click.

My neighbour next door runs the local monthly Farmers' Market which is this coming Saturday so I will send her with a list of veg and marmalade and meat that I need. I will probably be driving myself by the time of the following Market. 

I am glad that you are feeling a little more reassured. 

Things have moved on a bit now from the swelling, which has subsided just a tiny bit so I can see that in a few weeks it will likely have gone altogether.

What's bothering me more now is the irritation from my surgical glue. It started shortly before the weekend, and of course despite leaving messages in two places, nobody was working over the weekend and now today they will have a backlog so haven't got back to me yet.

Meanwhile I decided I could do worse than phone my GP surgery. The receptionist I spoke with was actually very sympathetic and she listened to my concerns and referred me to the "emergency triage" who rang me back less than an hour later. 

I have got an appointment for 2pm to have my incisions looked at, and my neighbour can take me at that time. (Only one of the offered options she can manage, due to her own commitments today)

This glue is stuck on like clams and isn't going anywhere in the foreseeable, it seems. My longer incision is actually the only one that seems to be normal. The four holes, one in the bend of my waist is ok...glue still there but dry, not irritated, no probs at all. The one below, is red at one edge but the itching improved after I put E45 on the red bit (not the actual glue). The one below that is red and itchy to one side of the glue and the E45 stopped working on that after the first couple of applications. The bottom one which is so far down I can barely see it, never mind reach it, has had a red-pimple rash since about Thurs/Fri and now the rash has spread around two of the four sides of the glue. And is VERY itchy!!!! Is ok if I lie very still in bed and I can then fall asleep. But I wake up about three hours later, move slightly, and it sets off the itch. So I was awake from 4am again today just because of the itching.

I am cross because it states very clearly on my medical record that I am "allergic to dressings and dressing adhesive". Yet they put this surgical glue on me without even doing a patch test? I am perfectly fine with normal dressings like elastoplast OTT plasters. But I developed a rash with two of my four "Island Dressings" after my hysterectomy, and it was the nurse who said it seemed that I was allergic to the glue on those dressings. I took the two offending dressings off around two weeks or so in, once the itching got really bad, and all resolved quickly.

However, I cannot get this glue off!!! It is stuck solid. Supposedly should have come off around 5-10 days in. Now 21 days and no sign of it ever coming off in my lifetime atm 

So I will see what the nurse at the GP surgery says. I cannot get to the hospital as my neighbour isn't confident about driving there. They haven't got back to me yet anyway. So hopefully the GP's nurse can either remove the glue and let me put my tried and tested plasters on the wounds, or will tell me what I can do to dissolve it. I have read vaseline, but it takes days and this skin reaction isn't going anywhere until that glue is gone! I also don't want to put anything on it until a medic tells me what I can put on safely. The vague instructions were to shower (I don't have a shower at home) but not to soak it in a bath but to wash it gently and pat it dry but not get it wet. Which sounds totally contradictory to me. So I've not done anything with it. 

The only plus is that I've found out how to get glue out of underwear  which is vinegar and water but leaves a yellow stain but at least the glue itself comes off my knickers. I stopped using the E45 on the two worst ones when I realised it wasn't really helping the itching and I thought it might be why I was getting glue on my undies, but the glue is still on them and that's without E45 anywhere near where the glue spots are. So maybe it's breaking down but it's so slow - still huge thick scabs - and meanwhile this itching and the rash are really bothering me.