Going back to work after resection

Hi All,

I finally scheduled my surgery in March at Univ. Penn Hospital. My surgeon said the plan was to do an gastrojejunostomy, remove my cecum and terminal ileum, and detach my fistula between my transverse colon and a loop of small bowel.

My question(s) for those who have had a small bowel resection is, how long can I expect to be out of work?

I work for a medical software company that allows their employees to work from home two days a week. When I spoke with my boss she said that I can work from home while I am recovering. I am very fortunate, I know.

The second part of my question is that since I am able to work from home during this and once I get out of the hospital in 5-7 days, from your experience, would I be pushing myself too hard by trying to work 1 week removed from surgery?

I am a pretty tough person and am very stubborn about missing work for ANY reason. Would I be in too much pain still? Too exhausted?

open surgery or laparoscopic?

I believe the rule of thumb is 4-6 weeks for laparoscopic and 6-8 for open. I had laparoscopic and was back at work (desk job) in 3.5 weeks, starting at home. I didn't physically go to the office until 4.5 weeks. I also came back to a shorter work schedule. 3 days the first week back. 4 days the second week. A full 5-day week the 3rd week back.

I took prescription pain meds for 1 week following surgery, then Tyelnol the following week. I was able to drive by the 3rd week, but I'm not sure that I would have wanted to sit in a desk chair for a full work day at that point.

Walk. Rest. Walk. Rest. Walk. Rest. Walk. Rest. Repeat. Not to the point of exhaustion because that will have the opposite of the desired effect.

Eat protein. My hospital nutritionist had me counting protein grams when I got home. I believe this definitely helps & I know I would not have eaten enough protein on the low residue diet if I was not monitoring it.

I am going to try to go back to work on Monday, and I had surgery last Wednesday (so, out of work for a week and a half). I am already feeling pretty good... still getting a little worn down, but overall I haven't been on any narcotics for pain for 4-5 days (even with the option in the hospital, I just needed tylenol). I already talked to my work, and they will be flexible with me depending on how I am feeling at work when I am back, in regards to whether I will need to leave early or not.

For comparison purposes, I had 40 cm of my small intestines taken out (had about 30 taken out in the area where the ileum used to be; I had surgery in 2007 as well, including a little bit of the large, and another 10 taken out elsewhere). This was done laproscopic, from bottom of belly to the belly button.

It is really going to vary person to person, and I am a younger guy... so I think that it can be easier and quicker for me to recover... though again it will vary on your pain tolerance and your energy levels.

Hi Jake, may I ask why you've had another surgery? Was it due to coplications from the first one? I'm worried. Especially after reading all of these posts on here about multiple surgeries. My doctor seems to think I should be good for 10-15 years if I have this done. Now I'm just worried I'll keep have more and more.

My last surgery was 6 years ago... they took out the ileum, and about 20 cm of intestines from the small to the opening to the large. They also took out my appendix, and what they called a 'mass of messy intestines that had fistulized together.

I believe it was done sooner because structuring (this time... 3 areas including the former ileum area) got bad quicker due to no medicines working for me from that surgery until early 2013. I am the kind of person that can't go into remission on surgery alone. Now I am on a medicine that is working (tysabri) so this may put me into remission. I just have always had issues with scar tissue due to inflammation.

The good news is that I was back to work in 2 weeks that time as well.. so it has been pretty similar recovery times for this one as well.

Post Edited (JakeB) : 1/16/2014 5:52:04 PM (GMT-7)