Working out

I was actually training for my first fitness competition when I found out I had a 2.8cm cancerous tumor in my right kidney. Tomorrow will be 4 weeks post surgery for me and I plan on going back to the gym week 5, so one more week. I highly doubt I will be lifting as heavy as I was, but who knows. I will let you know in a week how it goes for me. I have missed lifting so much these past 4 weeks, can't wait to get back at it!

When my tumor was found I was training for a 1/2 marathon.  I also was lifting weights on my off days of running.  I've always tried to eat right and exercise regularly.  When I had my  partial at the end of August last year my doctor told me to give it six weeks before I do any strenuous training.  Right to the day I laced up my shoes and started running again.  I ran every day that first week--not too long just a couple miles at a time each day at about an 8:30 mile pace.  Well, by the weekend I had a sharp pain in my abdomen on the same side as my kidney surgery.  It went away a couple days later, but I learned a lesson....Take it slow.  I'm now back to training as I did prior to surgery.  I have a couple halfs planned this summer and a full this fall.  Good luck to you.

Stub

Been running for 30 years. Averaged 20 miles/week. Weight trained since a young teen. I was still doing both 3 to 5 days a week. At 50 I had decided to push a bit with the goal, "To be in the best shape of my life when I died." (little did I know...). I remember thinking I should have been feeling better but my results were less than the effort I put in. In any event my baseline fitness was good. After open nephrectomy I was golfing , running,and weight training, (and riding my harley) all within about a month. But I wasn't pushing myself. It was all within my comfort level. I also had much experience rehabing people of all levels as both a physical therapist and athletic trainer.

I have since tried to discourage others from trying to return to normal too quickly. The risk is not worth the reward. Denial of what just happened is normal. But it must be respected. I suggest that you picture your functional goals a full year away. Then it really is insignificant if you take 4 weeks or 10 weeks in your recovery. Go slow! Make no regrettable mistakes. The physiological and neurological changes cannot be forced. The body is in self preservation mode. It is fine to go through the training routines from a zero baseline starting point. It can re-open inhibitory reflexes. It allows the body to refamiliarize itself with what "was" normal. No compensatory adjustments allow re-establishing what is percieved as normal neuro developemental sensory and motor patterns. The key is to have it all part of a lifestyle. An active person will almost always do well if time and patience are applied. If high activity is not the norm for someone, the body will resist even slowing recovery. In other words, be careful and pay close attention to what your body allows you to do. Then build upon it.

I was 61 wben I had my Da Vinci nephrectomy and was a regular easy jogger, about 11 mins. per mile. I didn’t have any unusual post-surgery problems, but I allowed myself to recover slowly. I limited myself to walking until after my six-week follow-up with my surgeon. Once he said all was well, I gently restored my aerobic capacity by doing thirty-minute walk/runs, starting at running 1 minute out of ten and working up to all running over the course of several weeks. The following year, I did a four-day rim-to-rim hike across the Grand Canyon, carrying a 25-pound pack. Give yourself time to get back to feeling like yourself again.

 Good luck.

I was 36 and had open radical surgery to remove a 10 cm tomur along with kidney and adrenal gland. It took me almost three weeks to walk freely without any pain or aches. On week four i could walk quite normally for hours but didn't come back to gym for months, I was just walkig or jogging before  coming back to gymm seven months later.

Wishing you successful uneventful surgery

Forough