I am having a colon resection on Wednesday, how bad is the postoperative pain and how long will it last?

Question

Any extra information would be appreciated.

Answer 1

How you do postoperatively and how long it takes for you to recover depend on the type of operation done. If you have the traditional open abdominal surgery it will take longer than if they do a laparoscopic surgery. Also it depends on if the colostomy is intended to be only temporary or permanent. You will ordinarily expect to be in the hospital for 5-7 days, and you won't be eating a lot for the first few days. Complete recovery can take 2 months or so, depending on how well you heal and what further complications there are. If the colostomy is meant to be temporary, you will have another surgery scheduled after this to close the opening. In most hospitals, you should be gotten up out of bed within about 12 hours of the surgery. As hard as it will be to motivate yourself to get up, it will be much better for you and you will recover faster if you do get up as often as you can manage it, and the sooner you do get up the better it will be. The first time up on your feet is the hardest, and if you can pull it off in the first 8 hours or so, you can take advantage of all the pain killers left over from surgery. You will be very stiff and sore, and slow moving, but that's okay. The idea is to get back on your feet, not to see how quickly you can move. The nurses will want you to go to the bathroom and have a drink, to see the kidneys are functioning and that you can hold fluids. Your diet the first few days will start off as a liquid diet, and go to a very soft diet in a day. Lots of juice, broth and jello. If you do okay with that, then you'll get a progressively more appetizing diet (well, for hospital food anyway), until you get back to a full normal diet. You will have gassy cramps those first few days, complaints from an empty system as it starts things moving along again. The dietician will visit you to discuss how to arrange your diet for the first bit home, and what things to watch for. The nurses will give you lessons in how to clean the colostomy and how to change bags, and somebody should visit you to tell you where you can purchase supplies in the future. It may all seem overwhelming at first, so if you need to, ask for the name of a local support group to help you. They can be very supportive and full of ideas to help you along the road to recovery. And sometimes it helps to speak with somebody in the same boat as you, frankly.
If your colostomy is permanent, you will spend the next few months adapting to it, and the few changes it will require. For the most part, nothing in your life will be un-doable, although it may require some adaptations. You would still be able to do nearly any physical activity you like. Depending on the location, you might have to adapt the waistbands of some clothing so it fits looser, but otherwise, nobody will know who doesn't get told. This is one area where the support group members can really be a help, so you don't have to find everything out through trial and error, or the hard way. And won't have to feel any embarassment asking the questions, either.
Colon resections can be frightening, but as a rule, once you are through the worst of the recoperation process, usually the first month, you do feel noticeably better. The symptoms which caused you problems should have all disappeared, and you will feel more like your old self again. Just don't lose heart. Drag yourself up out on the bed, force yourself to get moving and keep on moving. Rest as you need, but don't let yourself crawl into any shell. Find a support group, and ask all the questions you need to. If need be, get the answers before you leave the hospital and don't let them off with promises. Good luck with your surgery, and with getting back to the rest of your life.

Answer 2

The pain should be adequately controlled.
Ie it should never be bad. And if you're lying there thinking 'ouch', then just ask for a top up. So you're the one in control, not the pain, see?
Thus the correct answer is: hopefully not bad.

It will last a few days. Typically you will need strong pain relief for about 3 days, then can back off to the simple stuff for a few days. But it will take longer yet to adjust.

Answer 3

Ask to get an epidural for post operative pain control. They will make the amount of IV pain meds you need minimal and allow you to be more awake and alert in the days following surgery which will in turn allow you to be more active and help your bowels "wake up" quicker.