So I had prostate surgery, and apparently I have since been spending too much time sitting in front of my computer, contributing to pain and bleeding. I am now told minimal chair time until I heal more. Thus the tedium of bed rest. I’m certain this is a common experience in general if not in the specifics. Your tales of woe?
I also had that surgery. It was a robotically-assisted prostatectomy for Gleason IV prostate cancer. I was flat on my back for the better part of two weeks afterward. That’s where I developed my hatred for narcotic pain meds; they really messed with my brain and didn’t help enough with the pain.
(If you’re squeamish, skip this paragraph)
My biggest pain issue was with the catheter. Scabs had developed where you really really don’t want scabs, and any significant movement ripped them off. Whenever I moved in my sleep, the pain was excruciating. I was waking up constantly. I did my best to just settle in a reasonably comfortable position and stay there.
Thank goodness for legal medical marijuana. With help from the local dispensary, I was able to get five hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time in a week, and it made all the difference in the world.
The good news is that after those first couple of weeks, everything was smooth sailing. No lingering pain, no interference with normal bodily functions, and no cancer.
Hang in there, @Lumpy. It’ll all be better soon.
Thank God I did NOT have cancer, just benign enlargement, which calls for a much less grueling procedure. Only was catheterized for 48 hours.
Congratulations! It’s good to hear it wasn’t cancer.
long long time ago, I was swinging a pickaxe in hard prairie gumbo.
Until my lower back said, “You’re done now.”
In bed for a week.
One day I was being a smart ass and jammed the end of the wheelbarrow handle into a rib. Must have bruised it badly. There was only one position, propped on the sofa, that offered any relief and there I stayed for the next five-ish days, sleeping sitting up. Bathroom trips were, well, a trip.
When I had my gall bladder removed (1999) I couldn’t be flat on my back - it hurt too much. I slept on a recliner for 3 nights, hugging a pillow against my gut every time I had to cough. And this was after laparoscopic surgery, not a full cut.
OK, yeah, I don’t handle pain well…
I had abdominal surgery. They split my abdominal muscles down the middle, connected them to spreaders, moved my guts out of the way and removed some tumors. My muscles were stretched like that for about 6 hours.
That was not a fun recovery.
I had a partial hysterectomy 21 years ago. The surgeon told me that he didn’t do the “bikini cut” which is a horizontal cut that’s made so as not to be noticeable when wearing a bikini. He said the old-fashioned vertical cut healed much faster. So that’s what he did. I was out of work for 6 weeks but probably could have gone back in 2. The only issues I had was that for a few days it hurt when using my ab muscles to get out of bed and for the first week I was tired. He was right, I healed quickly and without issues. The scar is still somewhat visible, but has never bothered me. I even used to wear a bikini! I consider it a battle scar that I am proud of.
I had a complete hysterectomy and stayed overnight in the hospital.
The next night I stayed in a hotwl in an ADA room so it had a walk-in shower. I had to get up in the night and literally could not sit upright because of the pain (stupid painkillers not working on me); I had to slide down onto the floor and crawl to the desk and use that to stand up. I slept on the couch tge remainder of the night and thae next two after that.
Not flat on my back, but I was on the couch for a month with my foot elevated after surgery to remove a melanoma on the bottom of my foot. The first 2 weeks I had a wound vac strapped to my foot and then went back for a skin graft. I was able to use a walker and a knee scooter to get to the bathroom and bedroom but that was it, mobility wise. Fortunately there wasn’t any pain from the surgery, but straightening out my leg when I got the okay to put weight on my foot was pretty tough.
Dear Og, those things are the worst. When my prostate very literally exploded and my bladder was filling with blood as a result they shoved what felt like a garden hose up my urethra. What followed was even worse as they used a huge syringe to suck the clotted blood out. Medical marijuana helped but not as much as oxycodone did.
A pretty bad curse would be “may you NEED oxycodone”.
I’m writing this flat on my back right now.
Tweaked the heck out of my back a couple days ago trying to buy concrete. I’m now awaiting my scrip for muscle relaxants…
Fictional, but I always wondered what sort of shows Anton Chigurh watched while he was recuperating from performing surgery on himself in a rural west Texas motel room before the days of internet and widespread cable. Since he features in a Coen Brothers film, daytime soap operas wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility (cf. Fargo).
Damn. Just reread what I posted. It was supposed to say Gleason VII, not Gleason IV.
At least I’m not confined to bed, I can get up and walk around as much as I’m up to; I just can’t sit much. Which has led me to realize just how much of my time I’m used to slouching in my desk chair wasting time on the Internet.
I had a thymectomy, which takes the same “through the sternum” cut as open heart surgery.
After I got home, I couldn’t lay on the bed at all. I had to sit up on the couch or the recliner. And I cannot sleep that way, so I had a miserable time until I could lay on the bed again.
The pain from that one sends you to the moon.
mmm
It’s miniscule in comparison to other stories here, but I hope I may be turning the corner following a bout of apparent food poisoning.
First Mrs. J. went down with vomiting and diarrhea, then 48 hours later it was my turn (the time course, apparent infectivity and symptoms lead me to suspect norovirus).
After a prostrate day and a half I seemed to be improving, though with scant appetite. For dinner I had a variety of yogurt, “Icelandic-style” with mixed in raspberry jam to make it palatable. The ensuing G.I. symptoms were the worst yet and included projectile vomiting. Back to bed (except for bathroom trips) for another day and a half.
Hopefully the worst is over. No energy yet.