Hi all,
My mum is going in for her surgery tomorrow and understandably is nervous scared and emotional. She keeps thinking about the what ifs and I hope this will work. For those of you who have had surgery do you have any advice to aid recovery she is due chemo again in 2 weeks time and is worried about that. I always try to help where I can but im not in her situation so wondered if you had any words?
Wishing all you ladies well xxxx
Hi as you said a few of us has been there.for op.but the nurses are brill and helpful try not to worry .wishing your mum well.maryx
Make sure your mum checks out about chemo as they wouldn't do my mum's for 4 weeks after to give some healing time xx
Hi. I'm sure the op will be fine. My mum had hers in March and starts back on chemo on Monday. This is 6 weeks after the op. The surgeons are so good and I'm grateful to the staff for the care my mum had. The first few days are hardest but each day is an improvement. She will be fine I'm sure
Hi. The op is scary but you can tell you mum from me (the worlds biggest wimp) its nowhere near as bad as she is imagining. What she is experiencing is fear of the unknown. I had a radical hysterectomy and was back home in 4 days. Tell her to take it easy, rest when she needs to and just listens to her body. Do listen to the advice of the hospital regarding lifting etc or she will regret not doing so. I hope the surgery goes well and also the Chemo. Big hugs to you both xx Kathy xx
Hi there I have just had my second surgery and was just as scared as the first time. I think it's fear of the unknown and lack of control and when I was told I would be in high dependency afterwards I had a real wobble. I did get some diazepam from my GP and took two the day before and one the morning of surgery. I think they definitely took the edge off and the staff were excellent in keeping me calm. I'm now 2 weeks post surgery and recovering really well. Please give my best wishes to your mum and hope her surgery goes well xx
I'm guessing it wouldn't be normal to not feel a bit nervous. Ask your mother to watch how the nurses give her the injections to stop blood clots, as she'll need to give these to herself when she gets home. I wished I'd watched at the time.
She'll probably have some breathing and pelvic floor exercises to do as well.
One of the best things to do is to walk around the ward as much as is feasible. The first day it was all I could do to get out of bed and sit in the chair but things do get better. Reassure her of that.
Tell her to lift nothing heavier than a credit card when she gets home😀. My chemo restarted two and a half weeks after, it depends how well the healing goes.
As others have said fear of the unknown is really difficult whereas in many ways once things are happening, however tough, we can find ways to cope. There are lots of previous threads which you can find by using the search tool for tips about dealing with the op.
I decided that I had to trust the team to do what they were experts at and it was my job to be a 'good patient' (do as I was told with exercises pain relief etc!) and not lose the plot!! There were some tough times and during them I found it useful to just focus on the present- sometimes just the next ten minutes and then later a day at a time.
There are many hundreds of women who have had this op- it is a big one and occasionally there are complications BUT we have got through it and there's no reason to think that your mum won't also...
A really sweet thing that helped me was I was given a lavender bag beforehand and kept it under my pillow. I took it into hospital (along with my pillow and a cotton case) and it reminded me of the love that was sent with it. Lavender is thought to be soothing too and help sleep. The Drs and nurses used to comment how nice it was too...
The other thing I would say is that it can be harde sometimes for family to watch their loved-one go through these procedures and feel helpless so I do hope you have some good support around you too.
I shall be thinking of you bith and hope all goes well, best wishes Sx
Hi All,
Thank you so much for your comments above. Safe to say after 7 and a half hours of surgery mum is out of theatre and in recovery. They gave her a full hystercetomy part of bowel removed some stomach lining and diaphragm.
Have a lovely evening all xxx
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