The Colon Club

Hi there,
I am a 21 year old male who had a laparoscopic right hemicolectomy around 5 weeks ago for the removal of a tumour (which turned out to be benign). Before all of this I was very active and trained 3 times a week and would play a 90min football game. As you might imagine I am really keen to get back to playing but am wanting advice on how to do this the right way and if 5 weeks is long enough to wait before starting to get back into it. What was everyones experiences and how early did everyone go back to their normal fitness activities?

Thanks

Last time I played tennis was back in October 2017. But I have an illeostomy that will hopefully be reversed this summer. Being very active with a part of your body sticking out of you seems a bit dangerous for me. I'm a runner too and the bag presents some problems as does chemo. So I'm a ways from being able to get back to normal training.

I would ask your surgeon for advice. Of course she gave me advice and I did ignore some of it (like not lifting more than 10 pounds the first month). But it would be at least nice to get their guideline.

If you had surgery at a major cancer center, you might ask if there's a doctor that specializes in sports for those recovering from your type of surgery. My fitness center manager had surgery for a hernia recently and gave me the name of a sports PT doctor that I plan to talk to after surgery. This doctor specializes in getting people back into shape after injuries. I was actually surprised that my fitness center manager consulted with such a person as she's already highly qualified herself.

At 21, it's pretty hard not to be active and you may feel invincible and your body likely heals far faster than most here.

casey777 wrote:Hi there,
I am a 21 year old male who had a laparoscopic right hemicolectomy around 5 weeks ago for the removal of a tumour (which turned out to be benign). Before all of this I was very active and trained 3 times a week and would play a 90min football game. As you might imagine I am really keen to get back to playing but am wanting advice on how to do this the right way and if 5 weeks is long enough to wait before starting to get back into it. What was everyones experiences and how early did everyone go back to their normal fitness activities?

Thanks

I also had a right hemicolectomy.....I would wait at least 8 weeks. I was told that it really takes up to 6 months to completely heal.

In my opinion, it would be good idea to see a sports-medicine doctor about this. He/she should know about recovery times for various kinds of injuries and surgeries.

The main risk, I think, would be the possibility of an incisional hernia at the incision site where the resected hemi-colon was removed. Depending on how the surgery was done, this could take a long time to heal thoroughly. If the surgeon had to make the cut "across the grain" of the abdominal muscles in order to get the resected colon out then the recovery time could be a lot longer than if the cut were made "along the grain" of the muscle. (That's what my surgeon told me.)

There are some athletic-minded members here who did not wait long enough before resuming intense athletics, and they ended up having hernia operations.

I am also in NJ facing a right hemicolectomy. What part of NJ do you live in? Who performed your surgery?

mcac15 wrote:I am also in NJ facing a right hemicolectomy. What part of NJ do you live in? Who performed your surgery?

Southern NJ.....Dr Stephen McClane at Cooper University, head of colon rectal surgery and co director of MD Anderson, performed my surgery. He is a rock star! Had my surgery at 8:00 on a Friday and was discharged by 6:00 on Sunday. Went home with no pain medicine! I feel like I never had surgery

Here is his credentials
https://www.cooperhealth.org/doctors/steven-mcclane-md

Good reminder that I have to see someone on my recovery too. I have the person's card on my desk at the office. My fitness center manager recommended here and she had a recent abdominal surgery along with a variety of injuries.