Laparoscopic colorectal Surgery

[KarenB123]

Hi,
I'm having a laparoscopic lower colon resection surgery on Friday this week. I was hoping anyone who has also had this procedure, could share their experiences with me. What was your pain like? How long did you stay in the hospital? How long before you could resume a normal diet? How long was your total recovery?

Thank-you

[kiwiinoz]

Hi Karen
I had a rectal cancer removed on Sat 05 Jan 2013 and was home on Thursday 10 Jan. Pain was primarily controlled by morphine for the first two days and then oral painkillers thereafter for a further day. Mostly related to the incision. Best thing I did was, at the urging of the medical staff, to do laps of the ward. 1 lap was about 250 m so 4 laps was 1 KM and I ended up doing about 16 laps on the last couple of days. Suprisingly once my bowel got working again I was fine to walk normally after one week. I considered myself healed by two weeks and I was running again after 3 weeks.
My wife wanted to lay of the marital activities a big longer but that is perhaps for another thread
All in all it is big surgery, but certainly doable.
Kiwi

[raym]

My first surgery was similar lower resection (sigmoid/rectal junction). The worst pain I had was in my right shoulder caused by the gas used to fill the abdomen during the procedure..toridol took care of that. Then the next pain was gas mounting and finally passing. I don't recall massive incisional pain though I had narcotics for that I was hiking two weeks after, though avoid weight lifting for 5 or 6 weeks. I think I was discharged on the 4th day. As surgeries go it was not too bad.

[Moon]

Hi Karen
After laparascopic surgery for rectum I took home 3 days after surgery, had been on Morphine only the day of surgery. The next days I only took paracetamol and NSAID. At home I stopped with painkillers. The before surgery I had a colonskopi, so I was clean. Because of my ileostoma I could eat all I want the next day. I was tired the first 2 weeks at home, but I have 3 kids and there is not so much time to relax.
Greetings from Europe M.

[elise]

I had a right hemi done laprascopically in 2012. I had an epidural put in to help with the pain for the first 3 days. It worked SO well! They swapped me to IV and oral after that. I was walking very short distances the next day and doing loops of the ward by day 4-5.

I was not aloud of eat anything solid until day 5 or 6. All low-residue diet for 8 weeks (no raw fruits or veg, no whole grains/wheat, no nuts). Then slowly back to normal.

After you get past day 2-3 it gets a lot easier

Good luck

[mstults]

Getting back to normal depends on how much colon is removed and where.