The Colon Club

My surgery has been scheduled for Friday May 19th. I was told I would be in the hospital for 3-4 nights. My wife is out of town the Tuesday after the surgery so it would be a problem for me to get discharged that day. How long were you in for, if you had a left hemi-colectomy?

Thanks in advance.

I lost part of my transverse and descending colon. My doc was old school ,he did not believe in key hole , he opened me up from groin to sternum. I remember my wife asking at the time if that was really necessary . His reply 'big gut big cut'. He looked at every thing closely including running an ultrasound over my liver. I was in hospital for ten days. In hindsight longer probably would have been better, hospital is designed for post op problems, your bed at home isn't and nurses don't let you over do things. Best of luck with it ,Ron.

Interesting, ron50. I might bring this up with my surgeon. Thanks!

Hubby did not have a Hemo-Colectomy and he had open surgery (the Surgeon said: "I need to see it all"). His surgery also included a Colostomy reversal so probably not easy to compare to yours. Anyway, he had his surgery on a Monday and was discharged the next Monday.
Good Luck with your surgery.

Hi - I had robotic LAR few weeks ago. Spent 3 nights in hospital. Was an initial T2N0M0, but had complete path result after rad/chemo in Dec/January so went to ypT0N0M0. No lymph node involvement. Have small scars from robotic incisions and larger along my waistline where they removed the rectum. Basically all was removed and I have a colo anal connection. Temp loop ileostomy for about 3 months so right now dealing with recovery.

Best of luck!!

Scott

I'd say 4 to 7 days would be a good range. I think I was in for 5 days. It goes quicker if you are diligent about getting out of bed and walking around to get things working again.
I hope you have a smooth surgery.

mpbser wrote:My surgery has been scheduled for Friday May 19th. I was told I would be in the hospital for 3-4 nights. My wife is out of town the Tuesday after the surgery so it would be a problem for me to get discharged that day. How long were you in for, if you had a left hemi-colectomy?

Thanks in advance.

I had a right hemi-colectomy in November of 2106. I was only in the hospital for 48 hours. Had surgery on a Friday morning and went home Sunday morning. I listened to people and walked, walked, walked! I left the hospital without taking pain medicines. I was in no pain, except for soreness when getting out of bed or a chair, but it went away within 5 days. Just keep walking!

Best of Luck!

My son was in the hospital for 5 nights following surgery (+3 prior to surgery). When he left the hospital he was told he could do anything he felt up to doing. This may be good advice for someone my age but for him not so much. He ended up back in the hospital a week later for a few nights.

Thanks, everyone!

Hey Daddy, curious what happen? Did your son over do exercise afterwards , and caused problems?

Thanks Chuck

On November 20th, 2014 I had half of my sigmoid and half of my rectum removed in an open surgery. I went home on November 26th. I hope your surgery goes well!*hugs*

Chuck, I think it had more to do with eating than exercising although one usually drives the other. Also, he had a significant obstruction to begin with and I believe the trauma to his colon kept it from bouncing back to normal working order as quickly as it might have otherwise.

I had a resection of colon and rectum around the junction in January 2017. I had laproscopic surgery and was in hospital for 10 days with 6 in ICU. I walked a lot in hospital to try to get things moving because I was told that I couldn't go home until there was evidence of full transit. Whilst the hospital corridors do get rather boring... I joked with the cleaners that I knew every corner...maybe as well​ as they did! It seemed to take a long time before my bowel started working, despite all my efforts, however I was glad to have that time being "looked after" because it meant that I was in good form when I came home.
Good luck with your surgery and recovery.

My left hemicolectomy was performed robotically and I was in the hospital for six nights. I probably could have gone home sooner, but I wasn't releasing gas despite walking the halls, even marching and hopping at times. Good luck!

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input.