Surgery Recovery - why so much conflicting info?

My resection is scheduled for Jan 4. people keep asking me how long I'll be out from work, and how long until I can do activities and sports. I swear I read so many different answers. Will it be months before I play a sport or weeks? I need to come up with an answer when people ask me these questions.

hand-assisted laparoscopy, terminel iluem etc... (if this is pertinent info). thanks!

Cant speak for laparoscopy but I can for open surgery. They went in laparoscopy but had to revert to open surgery because it was worse than they thought. If I recall right I had mine at the end of July 22 of 09 and was back at work full duty (police officer) Sept 2.

Doc said if they had been able to go the laparoscopy route, I would have been back in two weeks.

tpd320 said:

Cant speak for laparoscopy but I can for open surgery. They went in laparoscopy but had to revert to open surgery because it was worse than they thought. If I recall right I had mine at the end of July 22 of 09 and was back at work full duty (police officer) Sept 2.

Doc said if they had been able to go the laparoscopy route, I would have been back in two weeks.

Click to expand...

mine was around the same rest time. i think july 02,10, got back to work in mid august

The reason there are so many different answers is because we are all different and no one persons experience is the same. I suppose if you look at the average timings given and there are no complications that's what I would do.

Good Luck with it.

Thanks, yes I suppose that's true. but, assuming no complications, I wonder when I'll be back at work (I have a desk job)? And then able to swing a racket or a club?

I had open surgery last December 19, and due to complications I didn't get out of the hospital till January 24. I was good to go about 3 weeks after being released from the hospital. If my surgery and recovery had gone as planned, I probably would have been good to go in about 4 weeks. Laproscopic surgery should be about 2 weeks.

I had laproscopic surgery and I had complications. My surgery was planned for the begining of Feb. (I forgot the exact date) but I was told I would be back on my feet and able to do small things rather quickly. They did suggest to stay out of work for at least a few months. I even signed up for classes before and thought I was all set to go! I had complications which led to 2 more surgeries all done within 5 weeks. Then shortly after that I had an abcess form at the closure site which cost me another 2.5 weeks in the hospital and a lot of more time off of work. School Ha! I had to drop all the classes and because I was so ill I was not able to drop it on time to get my money back ....That was a huge, huge struggle to get that back (which I did!)

What I am trying to say, and I see a few others also.( we all recover at differently)...Yes hope and pray for the best with no complications, but do not expect to know exactly how long after till you are going to be able to play an intense sport like Racket ball.....
Take it one day at a time and see how you feel after before putting specific timelines on yourself from what others have experienced....

If there's an infection than the healing process will take longer and there's no telling how long recovery will be until you can resume normal activities. My surgery was the same as yours but mine got infected and I'd say it took at least 2 months to fully recover.

So I guess the best answer for you to give people is, "I don't know, sorry." Or you could say ~3 weeks - a couple months since everyone is different.

hi i had that surgery 4 weeks ago and now starting to feel a lot more normal, not due back at work til mid january. I have been recovering well, my wound still giving me a wee bit of trouble as the scar keeps oozing so I have to keep getting it re-dressed, but thats about it. I have been able to go for long walks with the dogs and all the day to day tasks but haven't tried the gym or strenuous exercise yet but I have no pain now and off all meds. Good luck with the surgery.

I'd have to agree- its conflicting because everyone is so different. My SO just had major surgery on dec 3rd ( details in my post titled "advice- small bowel CD surgery" in this section) and he is doing great! His surgery was almost 7 hours long- so he was in the hospital longer than we had anticipated but since he's been home, things have improved quickly. In his case, the operations were confined to the small intestine. He is likely to head back to his office later this week and has been trying to help me catch up with household stuff to get ready for Christmas, cleaning etc., driving, and just doing great overall. Luckily- he had no complications beyond it taking a long time for his bowel to "wake up" post surgery. His incision (about 6 inches belly button down) appears to be healing well- although the steri-strips are still in place (3 altogether- 2 from the lapro entries, and then the big one for the open incision). 10 day post discharge follow up visit with his surgeon is tomorrow, I'd be shocked if any problems turned up. Again- he appears to have been lucky to have no complications and I credit much of that to the surgeon himself. Also- he really tried to get moving quickly after surgery-even when it hurt- and throughout the entire time he was in the hospital- that really helped speed things up.

For me I needed 3 full months off work due to the physically strenuous nature of my job and my condition going in.

I had mid-line incision due to fixing up the fistulas emanating from my small bowel as well as a resection. It was healing up the muscles of my abdominal wall that took the longest. It was probably 6 full months before I got any decent strength back in my abs.

I had open surgery,back to work in 2 weeks,however as far as playing sports I waited two months before playing golf,open surgery they cut the tummy muscles and you want that heal good or you risk a hernia.

Thanks for all these comments, this is the info I was seeking.

Now, I wonder how my diabetes 2 may make the recovery harder or more likely for infection things like that. Well that just tell me, to me get it done the sooner (and younger and more healthy) than later.