Surgery recovery time?

I met with the surgeon yesterday. He and my GI think it's about time to have a resection as my fistulae have not closed on Remicade and I have a lump where one fistula meets my abdominal wall that becomes enlarged and extremely painful if I'm not on Levaquin. I can't seem to get off Entocort either. I have severe fibrosis at my TI with a pretty bad partial obstruction that the surgeon thinks is a ticking time bomb. I've thought about it and I can't really keep living like this. I'm pretty much done with the Crohn's at this point and feel that it's time for a resection. It's just a matter of time before I obstruct and end up needing emergency surgery with possibly way more complications after that....

I'm going to need an open surgery for the resection due to the fistula attached to the abdominal wall.

Since I'm leaving my job in July and currently looking for a new one, the timing is good as I'll have a lag between jobs.

So I'm not sure what the recovery time would be. The surgeon told me 2-5 days hospital and 2 weeks off and I'd be good to go back to work. As a dentist, there is SOME movement of the abdominal area, some bending, little lifting, and a fair bit of walking around and standing up/sitting down. 2 weeks seems WAY optomistic.

So what's a realistic amount of time for surgical recovery from you guys who have had it done? I'm planning on part-time work anyway...

I just had my 4th resection. This time there have been some complications, so I can't really count that one, except to say that my incision pain was pretty tolerable by about 4 weeks and moving from that was OK.

The other 3, incision pain was about the same as this one. And eating and getting my strength back was about 6 weeks. I was back to doing a lot of things, but needed to rest and take breaks. I was not working full time, only part-time, but I still only went back slowly, not a full day at first. No big outings or shopping trips.

I have to say that in general, when your life is suffering quality wise, it is time for surgery. It stinks big time for the first couple of weeks, but after that, you will be wondering why you suffered for sooooo long.

Two weeks is insanely optimistic! It took 6 weeks before I was ready to go back to work and my surgery was laproscopic. I worked 6 hrs/day, spent most of that time sitting, and still needed a nap as soon as I got home.

My surgeon told me to prepare to be out of work for 6 weeks. She said it's usually easier to go back early than it is to ask for more time off.

When you do go back, would it be possible for you to start slowly? I usually try to go back on a Wednesday so I work three days then have a weekend off. Maybe you can schedule fewer patients for the first week or two and maybe even start a bit later than usual.

At two weeks post-op, you might be comfortable standing or sitting but the act of standing up and sitting down will probably still be quite painful. Leaning over puts a lot of stress on your abs. Even if it isn't painful, it will probably be exhausting.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the advice and definitely thought that the surgeon was a bit off base with the estimate of 2 weeks. I *should* be starting out part-time like 2 days a week (8 hour day) until the practice has more patients for me to see...depending on where I end up. I'll shoot for like 6 weeks before I start...maybe a little bit earlier if I can handle it.

I think the worst part about the whole thing is right now, I feel great. But I can't taper off the Entocort or get off the Levaquin without getting sick and my fistula abscessing and making my life miserable. I also have a really, really bad partial obstruction at my TI that I think I might be getting mini-blockages every few days (20 seconds of severe, stabbing pain and the feeling like something gets stuck, then it moves on.) So I want to do it before I get an actual obstruction and am way sicker then I am now.

@NYVeggie - People with Crohn's are way more susceptible to infections then people with normal immune systems due to increased inflammatory mediators then healthier people. So there's an increase risk for us with gingivitis, perio and dental infections. So congrats on no bleeding at your cleaning. Most people I see bleed at every cleaning. But as far as pericoronitis, I would assume it'd be more common in immune compromised patients (the only Crohn's patient I've ever seen was one who only took a 5-ASA during a flare, never had surgery and had a 10 year remission - boy was I jealous!). But pericoronitis only happens when you have a piece of gum that is covering over a partially erupted tooth (most likely a wisdom tooth.) and you get plaque and food impacted underneath the gingiva that covers the crown. The bacteria builds up, irritates the tissue and you get inflammation of the gums over the crown. But if it keeps happening, you should talk to your dentist about what you can do to removed the source of the infection...