What helped you the most after major abdo surgery?

[scaredpersonnumber4936]

I am due to have a fairly serious operation soon that could come with a long recovery process and I am FREAKING OUT.

I have never had any kind of abdominal surgery before. Although I have had the pleasure of some really traumatic healthcare experiences. I have been trying to plan ahead and prepare myself but don't know anybody who's been through this to ask questions.

I live alone and don't really have an army of people I can call upon for help as I recover. So when I've been googling for ideas on how to help myself the many articles about how "the most important factor in my recovery was my spouse" have not been so helpful!

If you've been through abdominal surgery and were facing it again, what would you want to make sure you had ready?

What would be at the top of your list? What wouldn't you bother with at all this time?

Was there anything that surprised you or you weren't prepared for?

Lowest point in your recovery? Highest point?

If you found it distressing that your body didn't work the way it used to after surgery, how did you manage that?

What was the one thing that helped you the most?

Do you have grocery delivery? Fill your freezer and cupboards with things that will provide effortless meals. And/or prepare and freeze as many meals as you can. It’ll be winter - soups and casseroles will be very heartening. (This is ‘do as I say not as I do’ - I recall stocking up on frozen pizza ...)

If you think you’ll need it - a small (ie lightweight) kettle and bedside tray for morning tea/coffee could be really useful.

If there’s time (and money) get any niggling jobs done on your house - taps, lightbulbs, windows, pipes, boiler!, etc - don’t leave yourself with any difficulties to cope with while you’re convalescing.

Stock up on toiletries and medicaments. Get advice on vitamin supplements - particularly vitamin D.

I recall not being able to stand the sight of my hospital dressing gown once I was home. Treat yourself to some warm and luxurious loungewear. Do not feel guilty about providing yourself with lovely things - you deserve them as much as those who might receive them as gifts.

If there is anyone at all who is kind, do let them know - people can surprise you.

It’s entirely possible that you’ll feel not too bad once home. But you will need a lot of rest, so prepare for that.

Take a pillow for when you leave hospital to put across your stomach underneath your seatbelt. Helps with the car journey home.

They should offer you some basic physio advice in hospital including how to get yourself in and out of bed while recovering and will encourage you to take small, safe steps etc as soon as you are able to. I definitely think this helped overall in my recovery and building strength again, even if I felt quite vulnerable doing bits to start with after the op.

Do you have to go up stairs to bed? Do you have a seperate shower or is it shower over bath? They would probably the most challenging things in terms of mobility when you first get home so if there was any way you could set up a bed downstairs and have access to wash cloth baths if you dont have a walk in shower, that might help in the first few days.

All the best for the op and your recovery, the body does have remarkable ways to heal itself and I was surprised that I felt much better more quickly than expected so will keep fingers crossed it's the same for you xx

Keep your painkillers, bottles of soft drinks and notebook and pen by your bed/sofa.

I found taking painkillers on the prescribed schedule for the first couple of days made a positive difference. Not waiting for it to hurt first. Write down what was taken when so you don’t forget.

Moving around but not overdoing anything for longer than prescribed lol

Have the house clean beforehand as hoovers etc are bad news after such surgery.

It probably wasn't as major as what you are having but I had a C-section. It was the only surgery I have ever had. I was surprised by how 'weak' I felt for a few days. The first walk I went on - up to our shops and back - exhausted me. That was 5 to 7 days after. But once I'd done that recovery was quite quick. Make sure you don't have to drive for a while. Pre-book your Ocado slots (or other home delivery) ask the driver to put your bags onto the table so you don't have to bend too much. Have a friend lined up to pop in a few times to help with things you hadn't thought of before. I was allowed to shower the next morning - so that wasn't an issue. Good luck I hope it goes smoothly.

I had barbaric surgery last year. My consultant told me I'd bemail fine and up and about when I got home......
No, rubbish. I couldn't get out of bed on my own.
Because I hadn't prepared my son had to take a week off work to come and get me out of bed. I live alone too.
If you have a friend or a nice neighbour keep their phone number for emergencies.
Set your bedroom up for wher ever the bathroom is either up or downstairs.
Keep a kettle and drinks in there.
Make sure you have food for at least a week and also medication.
If they have let you go home alone you should be OK in the shower and if not you don't need a shower everyday. Have a wash.

Yes to stocking up on painkillers and using a notebook to plan your doses so you're not waiting for the pain to hit. A useful tip a physio showed me that I found essential to getting in and out of bed with little pain was using a dressing gown belt. Sit on the edge of the bed and then use the belt to hook your foot and swing it up into the bed the do the same with the other foot. Do the same when getting out. It minimises the amount of stomach muscle use. Hopefully I've explained that properly and good luck!

The medications you are given (painkillers) will have codeine in them which really constipated you, so ensure you have some meds that reduce this, like sennakot. Straining after surgery is agony.

Buy something like this, you can use it for normal socks - i also used it to get my heel through the compression stockings.

Get a grabber on a stick to reach stuff on the floor.

Fill a flask with tea or coffee and take it into the room with you,

Get baby wipes for when you can't shower

Keep a cushion close by - hold it tight when sneezing, standing up, coughing etc

I took a teaspoon of makuna honey every day and probiotics to help my bowels

At times like these a cleaner you can trust and rely on would be hugely helpful - but if you don’t already have one it would probably be stressful to have a new person around when you’re feeling weak.

Hot water bottle.

Lots of fresh bed linen (though you won’t want to be dealing with changing more than a pillowcase for the first few weeks).

Set yourself up a 'nest' in the living room, with everything you need in a basket close by. Meds, remote controls, phone, bottle of water, snacks. That sort of thing.

Move everything you might need out of the high cupboards in your kitchen, or onto the most accessible shelf of the fridge. Have some mugs by the kettle, maybe use a flask or a chillys bottle or similar.

I divided my day into upstairs and downstairs. Wake up, take meds, have drink. Then after a wee while make my way to the bathroom, have shower. Dressing gown on, back to bed to rest again. Dry hair. Then get dressed. Then rest. Then after a while I would make it downstairs. Everything took much longer than normal, and rest in between would help.

I would then be downstairs for the afternoon, early evening, then start the move upstairs again.

I found it useful to have a footstool at the couch to put my feet up on. And I bought fleecy blankets, lots of loungewear

If I was you I would write down exactly what meds you've taken and when. My OH did this for me, and I would have struggled without him keeping a record.

Remember you’ll need plenty of sedentary entertainment. Stock up on whatever makes you happy: new books, magazines, music, films - device based or otherwise. Are your cables all working properly and long enough for wherever you’ll need to be? Batteries in remote controls? Enough storage on phone, tablet, laptop, kindle, whatever - or would an upgrade make convalescent life easier?

Yarns, needles, crafty stuff if that’s more your thing and if you have the energy.

Wow, thank you all so much - sitting here taking notes! Lots of things I hadn't thought of here.

I've been thinking in such practical terms I hadn't though about also needing to do things to be nice for myself. (I think frozen pizza will be added to my sensible list of food I was going to stock up on so I can have some treats to look forward to!)

I recall not being able to stand the sight of my hospital dressing gown once I was home. Treat yourself to some warm and luxurious loungewear. Do not feel guilty about providing yourself with lovely things - you deserve them as much as those who might receive them as gifts.

I'm not very good at feeling able to be nice to myself so I definitely need to give this some thought. I had been wondering about getting some new things for when I get home but was feeling guilty about spending money on myself. You're right though, so it's helped to hear that.

I only have an upstairs bathroom and it's a shower bath, which has been worrying me a bit. Maybe some planning now will make it easier. I like the idea of thinking of my time in terms of upstairs time and downstairs time. And I probably need to just be firm with myself that there's no need to get stressed about not washing my hair as often for the first few weeks.

I was never that bothered about not having a downstairs toilet but with this coming up it's really worrying me! I could have just stayed downstairs completely for a few weeks. I think I will make sure I've got drinks and things upstairs.

I had thought of moving stuff off high shelves upstairs but hadn't even thought of my kitchen cupboards so will have a look at that!

Entertainment wise I have had a bit of an inspiration block. I usually tend to go off outside and go for walks or do gardening and DIY things when I'm getting bored or frustrated so not quite sure how to manage that. I have Netflix and Audible which seemed safe bets if I can't concentrate much.

I'm not much of a crafty person but maybe I need to have something on standby to keep my hands occupied if I'm getting fed up.

It's so hard when you don't know how you're going to feel.

Also going to test that getting out of bed trick.

How difficult did you all find getting up out of chairs when you were recovering? I've been having visions of sitting on the sofa and then being stuck there!

I found getting out of chairs much easier if I had a walking stick to push down on

Hi op,
I’m on day 20 after major abdominal surgery.
We live in a Victorian house and only have a downstairs bathroom. The most useful thing for me has been the commode we hired from the Red Cross, has made night time visits to the toilet easy!
For me the first week post surgery was dominated by my inability to eat and to poo
Drink lots of water and take any medication they prescribe to help your bowels along.
The wind pains were awful and then the shoulder pain from the wind was agony. I wish I had known to buy peppermint tea to help. I found holding a hot water bottle against my shoulder and also rubbing my hand quite hard into the painful spot helped.
The main advice is don’t get an infection in the wound! I was doing so well until day 10 when it started weeping. I have just come back out of hospital for the second time into the care of the specialist wound team at my surgery
Good luck with the surgery 🙂

Get some Rennie deflatine, peppermint oil capsules & peppermint tea bags for the trapped wind, some lactulose & dulcoease for the constipation due to painkillers. When you finally need to go to the toilet, hold a folded bath towel over your stitches, breathe in right down to your stomach & then give a massive sigh, it relaxes your muscles to help you go to the toilet. Get a raised toilet seat to save you struggling to get on& off the toilet. If you are fit enough before your op, build up your thigh muscles so you can use them instead of your stomach to get up & down & out of bed.

Get a stick.

When you’re able to start walking and venturing outside again, if you’re using a stick then people will know to be careful around you. People won’t push past you as much - a stick is a visible indication of fragility.

You’ve also got a much better chance of being offered a seat on the bus/train without having to ask if you’re using a stick.

There’s a youtuber called Hannah Witton (my dd is a fan of hers) who had to have her colon removed a couple of years ago, and she has made several videos about recovering from major abdominal surgery - I found them quite useful, despite the fact she’s 20 years younger than me!

Some great tips on here for you.
I had abdo surgery for my hysterectomy and I found the pain reflief made me very constapated. Try to drink plenty of fluids, Fig Activia is good, prunes, oranges etc. I got one of those small colapsable foot stools and kept it in the bathroom. raising your feet when you have the urge to 'go' puts much less strain on your stomach muscles.
The medication also killed my appetite for a while so small substantial meals can help, try to prepair or get ready meals beforehand so you don't have to worry about cooking.
Take care when bending and stretching, I was advised that you can be very suseptible to hernias after abdo surgery so try to keep the things you need in reaching distance and don't push youself to do things you don't need to.
Try to go for a walk every day as it is ideal exercise even if you can only manage to walk a very short distance. My first walk was about 3 doors down and back and I felt exhausted afterwards.
It's quite normal for the anasthetic to take a while to wear off and you may tire easily or find it difficult to concentrate at first. I like to read but couldn't at first so netflix and magazines were my friend.
Good luck, take it easy and look after yourself. I hope all goes well.

Yes to a nest! Consider where your clothes and underwear sit in terms of incision, and get some comfy loose bottoms that won’t sit on it tightly. Your insides will likely feel like they want to fall out so consider this in terms of your ability to do things, and depending on the surgery you may have little- no core strength- things like getting on/off the toilet/bed/sofa can be tricky and getting into a bath. You can get waterless shampoo caps that do wonders for feeling cleaner, and you don’t need to get to the bathroom even to use them- eBay/amazon cheapest for those. Wet wipes, all the wet wipes. I had a commode downstairs as I could only get upstairs with help (I had just had sepsis, been in for 3 weeks, was emergency surgery, and had a huge open wound, so probably different circumstances) and so went upstairs for bed only. The hospital provided that via their ot services but I had no tine to prep...

Drinks bottles for both cold and hot drinks, it’s very easy to get dehydrated and that can make you so ill, so fast especially post op. You can get sofa arm organisers that look fab for being able to reach over easily to keep things in reach- I had a basket with meds, snacks, drinks, remotes etc in that moved upstairs and downstairs with me.

People won’t push past you as much - a stick is a visible indication of fragility.

Such a powerful sentence. It reminds me of an elderly relative of mine who struggled with a stick when she came out of hospital. No matter how many times we pointed out that - as you say - the stick would warn people to be careful around her, she felt it was somehow getting in other pedestrians’ way - so would lift it off the ground when anyone approached her. Don’t do that if you get one, OP!

I had emergency surgery about six weeks ago (back at work now) and started to feel more normal after a week in hospital and the first two at home. I was so greatful to my DH who was amazing, but I think I would have been ok alone with some preparation:

• batch cook healthy food to freeze if you can

• eat and drink well, have small nutritious meals

• take painkillers on a schedule for a while and don't wait until you are in pain

• good hygiene (clean feels so much better)

• depending on wounds ... Giant pants (at least two sizes too big)

I've been surprised at how much fitness I've lost in a short time. Be kind to yourself.

Batch cook foods that are high protein and preferably rich in vitamin C for speedy healing : spinach and chickpea soup, chicken, carrot and noodle, carrot and lentil etc. Makes a huge difference to recovery time

Take care with wound care - Air dry, don't blow dry with a hair dryer!

Lots of good advice here.
I would add dried apricots and lots of peppermint tea.
This is not the time for a weight loss diet, but you can use 'my fitness pal' to keep track of things like fibre and protein too.