Frustrated

I am 3wks out of surgery now, and I am somewhat frustrated with my recovery progress. I feel like I should be able to do more. I have got out of the house twice this week to walk around a store. I can only make it 5-10min before I have to sit back down, and then I come home exhausted and hurting. I try doing some things around my house to get my body moving, but I have to sit down after just a couple of tasks. Showers wear me out! I am so tired ( I am anemic ), and still cannot stand up straight. Is this ok for 3wks post surgery? I feel like I'm not progressing like I should, but no one can give me a timeline. My doctor said I could go back to work for a couple of hours a day in two weeks, but right now I feel like I couldn't even walk to the door of my office. Am I doing ok? Also, I am still taking my pain meds on a regular basis. If I don't I move around less.

I agree with Sue. Your body is using a lot of energy to heal from surgery, so it's completely normal to feel worn out after just 10 minutes of walking or standing in the shower. I put a plastic chair in my shower after surgery, so that I could sit, because it wore me out to stand and move my arms to wash and condition my hair. Your energy will return slowly, but surely. After any surgery, it takes approximately 6 weeks to feel somewhat normal again, so hang in there, you're doing great!

You should probably talk to the doctor about pelvic pain if you're concerned. I am not sure, as that wasn't one of my issues.

When I was recovering I had heard a lot of people here say that after 6 weeks they started feeling a lot better, and so I held onto that number, after 6 weeks I'm going to feel a lot better, and then I didn't, and it was really disappointing. But I did start feeling a lot better, in due time. There really isn't a timeline for any one individual -- only averages from the experience of other people, who aren't you. I know how frustrating it is, but it really doesn't help to decide where you "should" be and then get upset because you're not there.

There are a lot of factors involved -- how sick you were before, what meds you were on, particular way the surgery was done, how old you are, etc. My recovery was slowed because of heavy prednisone use and I'm also older than a lot of folks here.... but I did get better (except for this annoying butt wound....)

Some of the parts that you can control in the healing process are: 1) Diet -- get a lot of protein and a lot of fluids, 2) Appropriate level of activity -- getting enough rest and walking a good amount, not too much or too little, and of course this is hard to know,
3) Getting help from doctors when something isn't right, monitoring your symptoms, and 4) Decreasing stress as much as possible -- getting support, doing things that calm you down....

Hang in....

I was just like you. trying so hard to feel normal after I finally did the big operation. I say 8 weeks minimum.

I know my back hurt for 1 1/2 years. It does get better, I am now training for an ironman reiathlon and feeling great. Probably as normal as I'll ever get with the end illiostomy, and very thankful for life!!

I second what everyone else said, patience is a virtue. Aren't you lucky for the expereince to practice it

I was still very tired 3 weeks post-op and could only walk very short distances. A loop around the mall completely wore me out. I also had to put a plastic bench in the shower so I could sit down and used it for the first 6 weeks. As everyone is saying, recovery is different for each person. I had a lot of complications initially so I really didn't feel that great for the first 4 months. I had a sore back and weird muscle spasms for a while from walking hunched over because my incision hurt too much when I stood up straight. I went back to work full-time at 8 weeks, but I could not have imagined going back sooner than that. When I did return to work, I did very light duty tasks for a couple of months.

That said, every time I had something happen that I was really worried about, I called my surgeon just to run it by him. Initially, I felt that I was bugging him, but I later discovered that he liked knowing what was going on and that it seemed to bother him more when I didn't ask. There were times when my worries were nothing, but then a few times when something was going on that needed to be addressed. Definitely ask your surgeon about pelvic pain or anything else that concerns you.