Debulking recovery extreme pain

I MUST BE AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULE
What I mean is, all that I'm reading makes me feel very blessed for not having had such horrible pain. I'm sorry sorry you both have such discomfort. But it just doesn't sound right to me. Aside from the fact that I have a high tolerance to pain, it was a little difficult moving around the first few days, mostly because of the staples. But I was completely amazed at how I felt. I wonder if it's possible that my doctor's method of this procedure is a little different than others. To this day, I have a slight 'deadning' of sensation around the lower stomach and upper thighs. This could be from nerve damage due to all the 'moving around' that they did, but I also wonder if I had some sort of lidocane or something injected to ease the pain after surgery and that's an after-affect. I was truly afraid of what to expect after having seen my sister go through a hysterectomy - she was in such horrible pain, but that was in 1979. So I realized I shouldn't compare my 2000 and 2006 surgeries to that.

I don't know, maybe I just don't remember the details (I'll look in my journal sometime). Having said all of that, you had some very major work done, and we all heal differently. I'm sorry you're so uncomfortable. Sending prayers that you'll feel better soon, Lisha.

(((HUGS)))
Monika

Pain after surgery
After any surgery there is going to be a lot of pain. I did take some pain killers but I tried very hard not to. I also discovered early on that my bottle of Excedrin worked best. Using a heating pad was also quite helpful most of the time. I went quickly on to chemo thereapy after surgery so I found it rather hard to determine what pain was caused by what but I leaned on the elastic "girdle" thing that they gave me to where. It kept me tight in place and helped to ensure the least scarring and bulging after surgery. I have a nice, flat stomach now due to it and ensuring that no matter how crummy I felt, I always excercised. Some days (of course) it was impossible but I always made up for it. In the beginning it was simply walking for at least 2 miles however slow and however cold (we lived in Minnesota at the time and it was winter).

Walking also helped with the neuropathy that came with the chemo. The Taxol (NEVER EVER again) was atrociously affecting me without any noted benefit. The best treatment was Carboplatin or Cisplatin. I started on Carboplatin and when I had a bad reaction to that, I moved up to the stronger form, Cisplatin. The pain was much less. I also did Gemzar which actually burnt out my veins and I don't think I would do that drug again without trying alternatives first and after a great deal of research.

The pain will ease, I promise. Just like any other surgery. Excercise your butt off (or as much as you can)! It's all personal and it's all up to you.

For Me
Usually the first night of the surgery is agonizing and the first 2 days are pretty horrible too but usually by the time I get my staples out I dont even really need my pain meds anymore. Sounds like something else could be wrong. I had an infected abcsess after my last surgery and I had pain like the pain you are describing. Abdominal surgery is so painful though and some people recover faster than others and some people have much bigger incisions. Sometimes I had 50ish staples and that was soooooo much worse then when I would only have like 30. Oh and motrin helps soooo much. It usually takes about a month for me to get my appetite back. I hope you can find some relief I know how horrible this pain can be.

I guess you can count me as
I guess you can count me as one of the unlucky pain people. My recovery was pretty miserable. I had a Fentanyl epidural in the hospital, then I was taking half a Percocet every 2 hours for the first week or so, along with Motrin. The pain was much worse than I expected, but the pain meds made me incredibly nauseated and I started to feel like I was going crazy. I lost 15 lbs in the first 10 days and alternated between sleeping and being restless. By the end of the 3rd week though, I could manage with just the Motrin and Tylenol. I do remember that I was completely off of the narcotics by my one month post op visit. I had a really hard time doing basic things for a while, like climbing into the shower or putting the foot of the recliner down. I actually wore maternity pants for 10 months after my surgery because I was so sore and had ascites.

I had a 10 inch vertical midline incision, which was closed with dissolvable sutures and surgical glue. After it scabbed over, there was a small area that did open up and drain, but it was not a big deal. We just put a dry dressing over it and let it heal on its own over the next week or two. I also lost sensation to the area surrounding my incision. It made me so angry, because I could feel deep, visceral pain, but couldn't feel touch on my abdomen from hip to hip, and I couldn't feel temperature (Know when they tell you that it's going to be cold right before they put the vaginal ultrasound in? It wasn't.) Every single thing I did seemed to make me uncomfortable and I was so frustrated.

The good news is, somewhere around week 10, I started feeling much, much better. My surgery was at the end of June, and by early September, I was back to working night shift as a floor nurse with no restrictions. I walked for at least a half hour every day starting the day after my surgery, and at around 3 or 4 weeks, started doing some light yoga stretches. Believe it or not, I was actually able to have sex after 6 weeks without pain (hope that's not TMI haha). The recovery was definitely two steps forward, one step back. Right after surgery, I remember thinking that I would rather be dead than go through a completion hysterectomy (which, luckily, turned out not to be necessary)...now my brain seems to have made the actual extent of the pain kind of foggy, and I know I could make it through another surgery again if I had to. It really will get better, and I hope your scan comes back clean and that you start to find relief soon.