How long after surgery until you were able to work physically?

Lucky64

I am 64, in good shape, semi-retired. However, I do want to work several days a month to bring in extra cash and my work can be physical. I am a professional videographer, so there is the loading and unloading of heavy cases into my van, a fairly heavy camera on my shoulder, twisting, bending, etc.

 

I have read that for six weeks you shouldn't even pick up anything heavy. And then there's the issue of urine leakage. Please let me know how your recovery was, how long it took. Or, does one need to fully retire after surgery? Unless they have a white collar job?

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

Clevelandguy

Hi Nick,

My doctor told me after surgery to lay low for a couple of weeks(while the catheter was in) so I stayed at home and did not work.  It all depends on your doctors instructions that he will give you, I don't think there is one size fits all answer.  You don't need to retire after surgery unless you want to.  As you heal hopefully your leakage will be less & less.  Some guys are pretty much leak free after 3-4 months, others longer.  I have just a slight bit of stress leakage after two years but it is totally managable with a light pad tucked in my underwear.  Of course due my prostate I was leaking a little before I had surgery so I guess you could say I am back to where I was before surgery. It really depends on how invasive your surgery was and what your doctor recommends.

Three weeks after surgery I was going anywhere I wanted to.  Three months after surgery I was doing anything I wanted to.   I own my own business and load & unload trucks and boxes in the 20-30 lb class every week.

Dave 3+4

hewhositsoncushions

I'm giving myself a month

I'm giving myself a month (hopefully getting an offer of a new job) to get recovered, dialled in on the catheter etc. and mentally fit and ready.

During that time I intend to impersonate the old Grandmama in 'Allo 'Allo and bash the floorboards with my walking stick and shout "Rene! Rene! Wuer ees ma dinneer!".  I expect this to last for less than 24 hours before I get a bucket of cold water thrown at me

GeorgeG

We are all different. Iv'e

We are all different. Iv'e heard stories of people running marathons after a couple of weeks, others recover more slowly. I flew home 2 days after surgery and was getting around and doing things the day after. I avoided heavy lifting for the entire 6 weeks to be safe,  I am normally very active physically. My surgeon said to use pain as a guide. If it starts hurting, don't do it. I ramped up lifting as my body told me that it was OK. I was at 90% in 6 weeks. I was tired and dragging longer than expected. It probably took me more like 10 weeks to get all my energy back completely but I do not process synthetic chemicals very well. Others do not report this. Let your body tell you when and just remeber that we are investing a few weeks of caution to make sure that the surgeons handy work is intact and as perfect as it can be.

BTW, I had some pulling and shooting pain in and around the surgery area after I was back to 100% and sit ups/heavy bike excercise cleared that up almost 100%. I am also 99% continent.

Best of luck 

Lucky64

Thanks guys. Gerorge, what

Thanks guys. Gerorge, what did you mean by:

"do not process synthetic chemicals very well"  ?

 

I figure I better not accept physically demanding work for 6 weeks after surgery. I do not want to disappoint any clients.

GeorgeG

For most of my adult life, I

For most of my adult life, I have been intolerant of man made chemicals so I don't do well with fresh oil based paint, pesticides, food additives, many medicines, etc. We live a very organic lifestyle (natural laundry soap, organic food, etc.) and I feel  lot better since we went old school (we clean windows with soda water and steam clean our floors with water only). Given that, my point is that we were not surprised when it took a little longer for me to clear out all of the general anesthesia and other drugs after surgery. The average person probably feels better sooner from that issue. 

10 - 15% of the population has my condition and the number is growing as the number of chemicals increases in our enviornment (60,000 introduced since WWII, millions of pounds of npesticides on our food, etc). Any of my friends that want to avoid toxic stuff ask me which one I do best with because they call me the canary in the cage, kind of an early warning system of sorts. I read a study recently where they are finding a link between my condition and prostate cancer because of the similar metabolism pathways between man made chemicals and the processing of testosterone.