35 year old recovering from nephreureterectomy have questions

keets10

I am a 35 year old male that is now 2 weeks into recovery from nephreureterectomy. It was thought that I had TCC from the scope that the urologist took of my kidney, but they have analyzed my tumor and told me that I am the 8th case of primary thyroid-like follicular cancer of the kidney. There is one case study on this topic for 6 previous cases and a paper written on a 7th case in the last 5-10 years from what I can find. It seems that my <3cm tumor is low-malignancy because of the type and most likely stage 1. Nothing was found in the few lymph nodes that they checked. That makes me feel good. They think that I will have a good recovery.

Because they thought that I had TCC, they took out my ureter and a small cuff around the bladder too to be safe. So, I have this catheter in and I've had it for two out of the three weeks now. It really sucks. Of course, all of this sucks, but we deal with things in our own way. Since the surgery (laprascopic) left me with three port holes on my left side and a 3+ inch incision near my waiste, that side is tough to sleep on. The catheter and bag make it tough to move around at night when sleeping and now I have a stiff back/neck from all of the terrible shifting and sleeping that I have been trying to do.
Needless to say, I am quite exhausted. I finally just started sleeping a little better, but I have noticed that my heart rate is very high resting and my blood pressure is also in the high range. 90 bpm resting and 140/90+ blood pressure most of the time.

Is it usual to have high blood pressure and heartrate after surgery? The urologist says that this could just be due to recovery, but I feel like my body is just a racing motor and its really exhausting me. I'm hoping that as I hit week three, the catheter comes out, I get a little more comfortable and I can start relaxing a bit. Also, I'm hoping that as I catch up on sleep and rest (as well as recovery), I can start to get back to some physical activity and that might help make my back and neck a little stronger. Its been a struggle for the first few weeks. I am curious how others get through the first 2, 3, 6 weeks, etc. I'm sure that my one kidney is a little stressed after the surgery and is doing overtime work during the recovery.

I've avoided pain pills during the recovery so that I would recover quicker. It seems that its taking longer than I thought to start to feel good. I was trying to walk 4-5 miles per day, but that has become too exhausting and uncomfortable with the catheter. Too much walking and my catheter causes some bleeding in the urine that really doesn't make me feel excited to see. I can't wait for recovery to continue and time to start passing by.

Would love to hear others' recovery experiences especially with heart rate and blood pressure. Before this I have been an elite level bike racer for 14 years and had a resting heart rate of 56 or less with bp around 120/60 or less. Of course, leading up to surgery, I was pretty freaked out and my numbers were off the chart due to exhaustion, sleep deprivation and anxiety.

Thanks,
keets10