rest at home time after the surgery

[2017Jul5Sandy]

Hello I am a newly diagnosed colon cancer patient in Canada. I received the surgery of Hemicolectomy Right under Laparoscopy. The surgery has no complication and the pathological report a phase I cancer which needs no chemo. Great results. Now I am planning when to get back to work and how long work in part time. Also I need to apply for EI and may be LTD to cover myself financially.

I don't know what is the longest time I could rest at home? Will 3 months at home after the surgery be a reasonable request? Can anyone share the comments or experience?

Thanks,

Sandy

[betsydoglover]

Everyone is different, but I had lap sigmoid colectomy and my surgeon initially said "3 weeks off work". At 3 weeks I was still tired in the afternoon, so I took one more week off - but 4 weeks worked for me. Then of course a few weeks later I started chemo, but still managed to work 2 out of 3 weeks.

Good luck. (You probably won't need 3 months off, but as I said everyone is different.)

[Utwo]

Some people with laparoscopic right hemicolectomy come to the office in about a week after surgery.
Two to three weeks off seem rather normal for an office worker.
I took 5 weeks off work due to after-surgery complications.

By the way, it was up to me to decide when to come back.
My doctor did not provide any guidance for the number of days off work.
I should have probably spent a few extra days off. I was too hasty to come back (due to different reasons).

[2017Jul5Sandy]

thanks for the response. It helps. I just want to take a break for a while. It has been too much too overwhelming in the past two months.
Sandy

[2017Jul5Sandy]

Everyone is different, but I had lap sigmoid colectomy and my surgeon initially said "3 weeks off work". At 3 weeks I was still tired in the afternoon, so I took one more week off - but 4 weeks worked for me. Then of course a few weeks later I started chemo, but still managed to work 2 out of 3 weeks.

Good luck. (You probably won't need 3 months off, but as I said everyone is different.)

You are a hero. Solute with respect

[2017Jul5Sandy]

Some people with laparoscopic right hemicolectomy come to the office in about a week after surgery.
Two to three weeks off seem rather normal for an office worker.
I took 5 weeks off work due to after-surgery complications.

By the way, it was up to me to decide when to come back.
My doctor did not provide any guidance for the number of days off work.
I should have probably spent a few extra days off. I was too hasty to come back (due to different reasons).

Sorry to know that you got some complication after the surgery. It must be painful. I still remember the awful pain for the first two days after the surgery. But no chemo makes thing a lot easier.
take care,
Sandy

[Maggie Nell]

Three months is a reasonable request. When you apply for EI and maybe LTD to cover yourself
financially, the response might be "we can cover you for 8 weeks no longer". You don't ask, you
don't get.

Congrats on a curative surgery and catching the cancer early.

[Utwo]

Three months is a reasonable request. When you apply for EI and maybe LTD to cover yourself
financially, the response might be "we can cover you for 8 weeks no longer".

I am not so sure about a few months of short term disability in case of Stage 1.

In my case, insurance company case worker (short term disability) started pushing me in about three weeks and I had to provide some substantiation (loss of blood, leak, infection).
I suspect that they have their internal guidelines based on Stage number.
The most important for me was to make sure that doctors office provided all the requested documents to an insurance company.

Do not forget that you have a right to push back!

I have no knowledge how EI works in this case.

2017Jul5Sandy, in what city/province do you live?

[2017Jul5Sandy]

I lived in Kitchener Ont, Canada. We have paid sick time accumulated over years which will be exhausted soon. Then I am applying EI sick benefit and/or LTD. If the Dr/insurance company doesn't approve that much, I may take a no pay leave. I feel quite reluctant to get back to work (regular office work) after such an up and down in life. I need some time to settle my mind. I did get some complication from my first colonoscopy. The 2nd day after that I got acute bleeding from my polyps removal site and almost shocked. When I rushed to ER, my BP dropped, Hg dropped from 12 to 7, which means the blood I lost was about 2000 ml. Thanks GOD, I got back within the safe line again.

[mpbser]

My husband went back to work the day he was discharged from the hospital.

[benben]

I went back to work the day after discharge.
Albeit just a couple hours a day at most, by week 2 or 3 I was pretty much back to fulltime - just not lifting much weight.
I had my son lift the heavy stuff for me and help me maintain orders. He still does to this day 3.5 months post surgery and 6 rounds in the chemo.

So yeah, everyone is different. I personally found the chemo harder than surgery.
Especially with the neutropenia drag that the chemo has given me, but I can see an end in sight and that's good