72 hours until partial nephrectomy

Carry on with your nesting behavior. Then your job is to have a nice nap while the surgeons do their thing. Domt worry bout a thing, and always look on the bright side of life

Footstomper said:

Dont Fret

Carry on with your nesting behavior. Then your job is to have a nice nap while the surgeons do their thing. Domt worry bout a thing, and always look on the bright side of life

Have you got anyone to help you when you come home? If not find a friend. it is pretty difficult to do anything the first week back from surgery.

It's a viscious cycle. Swelling causes pain, pain causes swelling. Stay on top of the pain and use the pain meds if you need them.  There is no shame in needing pain meds and there is no raging hurry to get weaned off them in a day or two. That is absurd to try and achieve, unless your body is naturally is telling you you don't need them (which is what it sounds like happened for Donna above, which is great but not the norm from what I understand. ). I always here people post here about how when they "try not to take the pain pills" they regret it later and end up in major pain. And don't forget that your insides have stitches too!! Your kidney will get sewn back together which makes this a very different surgery for you than those of "us' here that had radical nephrectomys, in my opinion (not a medical one, lol). You are healing inside and out and it's ok to rest as much as you need to. Being tired is to be expected. 

Sblairc (above) is correct.  Listen to your body, by all means, if you have pain, take the meds.  Don't try to be a hero because if you don't take the meds when in pain and decide to later when you're out of your mind hurting, it's hard to play catch-up.  Personally, I didn't have pain, just discomfort.

Also, the "thingy" for breathing exercises.......I'm a former Respiratory Therapist and it's a pet peeve of mine that most hospitals don't give this device to a patient PRE-surgical.  I was lucky in that I was able to get one at work before my surgery so I knew exactly what my target would be to work toward after surgery.  The device is an Incentive Spirometer, and it's purpose is to keep the smaller parts of your lungs from collapsing by doing deep breathing exercises, and avoid infection setting in.  You see, when you're under the affects of anesthesia, in pain, on meds and laying around more than typical, you will naturally breathe more shallow.  The breathing exercises will compensate for that.  It's advisable to do 10 breaths an hour, about 8-10 times a day.  I would usually instruct my patients to do it during a commercial break on tv.  Your initial goal should be approximately 1000cc.  Earlier I mentioned how I thought it would be beneficial to have one pre-surgery so that you would know what you're capable of achieving on a normal day.  For instance, before surgery I was able to do close to 4000cc, after surgery I couldn't even hit 1000cc!!  Had I not had the device before my surgery I would have no clue what I needed to strive toward.  After my surgery I discussed with our Medical Director how I thought it would be beneficial to give the device to EVERY patient when they come in for pre-surgical testing.  I was told "it would be too costly, because most patients will forget to bring it back with them the day of surgery, and then the hospital would have to provide them with another and cannot charge twice for the device".  

Donna~

hardo718 said:

Chiming in again Robyn

Sblairc (above) is correct.  Listen to your body, by all means, if you have pain, take the meds.  Don't try to be a hero because if you don't take the meds when in pain and decide to later when you're out of your mind hurting, it's hard to play catch-up.  Personally, I didn't have pain, just discomfort.

Also, the "thingy" for breathing exercises.......I'm a former Respiratory Therapist and it's a pet peeve of mine that most hospitals don't give this device to a patient PRE-surgical.  I was lucky in that I was able to get one at work before my surgery so I knew exactly what my target would be to work toward after surgery.  The device is an Incentive Spirometer, and it's purpose is to keep the smaller parts of your lungs from collapsing by doing deep breathing exercises, and avoid infection setting in.  You see, when you're under the affects of anesthesia, in pain, on meds and laying around more than typical, you will naturally breathe more shallow.  The breathing exercises will compensate for that.  It's advisable to do 10 breaths an hour, about 8-10 times a day.  I would usually instruct my patients to do it during a commercial break on tv.  Your initial goal should be approximately 1000cc.  Earlier I mentioned how I thought it would be beneficial to have one pre-surgery so that you would know what you're capable of achieving on a normal day.  For instance, before surgery I was able to do close to 4000cc, after surgery I couldn't even hit 1000cc!!  Had I not had the device before my surgery I would have no clue what I needed to strive toward.  After my surgery I discussed with our Medical Director how I thought it would be beneficial to give the device to EVERY patient when they come in for pre-surgical testing.  I was told "it would be too costly, because most patients will forget to bring it back with them the day of surgery, and then the hospital would have to provide them with another and cannot charge twice for the device".  

Donna~

This is super helpful. I was always very annoyed that this doesn't get explained. 

I did the breathing exercises with the spirometer thingy religiously. Ten times every hour. I started before I even went into the hosptial and for several weeks after. I also had a respiratory therapist in the hospital who taught me how to do the "smell the flowers, blow the candles" one. You inhale deeply through your nose as if smelling a flower, then exhale through your mouth slowly as though blowing a candle.

Other than that, walk a lot as soon as possible. Mine was an open partial but I was up walking the same night as the surgery and home in 2 days. My recovery was relatively easy; I would compare it to robotic. If robotic is even easier than it'll be very easy. A small pillow will be your best friend for a couple of weeks. You should walk with it hugging it against you, ditto when you laugh or cough.

Bring a large garbage bag for the seat of the car on the way home. This will make it easy to swivel in and out of the car. The bag swivels, not you, sparing you any discomfort or pain. Also have the pillow for way home to put under the seat belt so it doesn't rub against your incision. I was lucky and able to sleep in my own bed upstairs. Many needed to sleep in their recliners. What helped was a long body pillow to suppor the side the incision is on and a wedge pillow on which i piled more pillows.

Make sure they teach you to roll to get out of bed. Initially that's the toughest part as your abdominal muscles heal.

Wish you the best and don't worry too much; the reality of recovery was a lot easier than I feared.

Robyn,

You've got this made.

Icemantoo

.............to have everything in place anyway, regardless of your upcoming surgery.  But I'm sure you'll be fine.  I think it's natural to freak out a bit, you've got good reason right now, it's not every day we have to go thru something quite so dramatic like surgery.  Most of us tend to think we're "superhuman", until something womps us and we have the rude awakening of "HOLY S**T, I'm not invincable like I thought I was.  

Best wishes sent your way for an uneventful procedure and praying for you and your docs hands to have an expertise & quickness about them to get in, do what they need to, and get the heck out to let you recover.

Donna~

Sounds like things are going as well as they could be. Well done.