HIPEC recovery and extreme exhaustion

[Tamera]

I had my HIPEC surgery done on March 9 .

They removed a part and scraped my diaphragm. He said he spent a good deal of time there. Took my gall bladder, some of me bladder, rectum, some liver, resented my original resection, gave me a (temp) ileostomy, cleaned the pelvic a.d abdominal cavity, let no stone unturned. 10 hours in surgery total.

I spent 30 days in the hospital. I'm not sure how many in icu, as surgery had its own. I had an emergency surgery, the ileostomy started leaking. Septic. I had been walking the halls, but had a and the doctors said 4 days bed rest. That killed me. After four days, I could no longer walk. I made it four feet out of my room. Heart pounding, breathless.

Today. May 1st. I'm still feeling the effects of extreme exhaustion. My bathroom is about 30 steps away from my bed, I can barely make it there. I'm having a hard time finding motivation to get up out of bed. My poor family's been taking care of me and I'm sure they are getting tired of it.

Any advice to get out of this ?

[midlifemom]

Tamera,
So sorry you're feeling so poorly.
What about getting a portable toilet seat to keep by your bed?
I never had hipec so can't offer much advice, butt I do recall reading it takes a long time to recover. Give your body the rest it needs.

[LighterThanFeathers]

Hi Tamera,

I just wanted to say my cousin also had HIPEC about a month before you did, and she was dealing with the same problems of exhaustion and bad depression. Slowly she was able to lift herself up little by little, and now she is walking an hour or two a day. Still gets exhausted easily but she's been doing light yoga and breathing exercises which has actually helped her a lot. Look at breathing exercises on youtube. I wouldn't say her recovery is linear, some days she's great and others are worse but overall there is an improvement.

[Lydia666]

Sorry to hear you are feeling so crappy. Sounds like a huge surgery, glad he cleaned everything. Big hug to you. Feel better soon. What do docs say? When can you go home?

[Leighann Sturgin]

I had 2 HIPECs. They are tough. After the first one my new ileostomy leaked into the wound (they left open) I was septic. I couldn't walk anywhere even if I wanted. I was in the hospital for 4 month. When I came home I couldn't do anything for myself for a couple of months. I'm sorry you're feeling so bad. The only advice I can give you is to be patient. It'll get better. I slept/sat on washable waterproof pads to lesson the cleanup if my ostomy leaked or I peed. That helped. And I know you feel like a burden to your family, I did too, but you gotta get over that. They love you and will take care of you as long as you need it. Take a deep breath and focus on what you can do instead of what you can't. I also kept a journal. It helped my mental sanity to write out my feelings and frustrations. Most of all just know that you aren't alone. You can get through this, it just takes time.