How was your pain after a lobectomy?

I had a lobectomy in 2018 and another last year. The nursing staff look after your pain management very well and you have a button to press to give yourself relief when you need that relief. You cannot overdose yourself as it is monitored. I'm in Australia and I imagine it is the same where you live. Once home you will have pain meds to control it. One thing you can do to help yourself is to REST your body needs to heal and have a cushion with you at all times as it will help to hug it when you cough or sneeze. Good luck and don't stress you'll be ok

My husband had a lobectomy about 5 years ago. He had no pain afterwards. They offered him pain medication but he refused it because he didn't need it. Everyone's different. After all, a lobectomy is a lot different than a hysterectomy.
Pray about it and God will be there for you. I'll say a prayer for you also. You will be just fine.
PML

I had an upper left lobe Segmentectomy, not a full lobectomy, in March of 2023. I had the VATS surgery. (Robot assisted surgery, or video assisted). Surgeries have come a long way! It will depend on what type of surgery they are doing for you.
Anyway, no real pain in the hospital, of course they are there doing everything for you and giving you your meds on schedule. They send your prescriptions to your pharmacy, for when you go home. Make sure you have it set up for someone to pick them up for you. You should plan all this out now before your surgery. I ordered prepared meals for my entire family for at least a week so as not to stress anyone about making meals. I bought a bed table to eat at, and I already had my adjustable bed. THAT was the best investment I’ve ever made! After you get home, the hard part is figuring out how to sleep and move. The bed was great because I could sleep propped up, I could adjust it up to almost sitting so I could just turn a bit and get out of bed. No pressure on trying to push myself up that way. That causes some pain. You can always use lots of pillows to do the same thing. You do NOT want to put any pressure on your side. Take the meds even if you don't think you have pain, because it WILl come. If you stay on top of it, it will be good. I only had to take mine for a week or so. I was told not to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for about 4-6 weeks. You can really hurt everything if you don’t follow the doctors orders! The best thing to do is walk! Start just around inside your home. Then a little outside. Try to make sure someone is with you to help you back if needed. Breathing is scary at first because you don’t know what to expect, but I was so happy I could breath normally after the first week! Walk and walk and walk after you feel comfortable. Best medicine in the world for healing and breathing! I now am a personal shopper and I have to walk really fast to get the order shopped and then deliver it. A lot of orders have cases of waters (heavy!), etc. I’m telling you this because I want you to see you can get back to notmal. Just be Careful and Slow during your recovery! God Bless you and I pray that you have a full and speedy recovery!🙏🙏🙏

Thank you to @gprior, @pml and @cmcguire10 ! I really appreciate you taking the time to respond and it actually does help me to hear from people who got through it.

Hi,
I had upper right lobe removed in 2019. For me the pain was a lot the first day. I think half the pain was the chest tube. I had a collapsed lung in 1991 and had a chest tube for a few days. I had alot of pain then from the chest tube. Removing the chest tube was not painful. No pain meds after a week. As others mentioned, getting comfortable is challenging. Laughing, sneezing, and coughing hurts as well. Pain is much less after a couple days and gets better everyday. But even after a year, taking a real deep breath was not really painful, but would say a bit uncomfortable. .

I also had a wedge resection on left lower lobe in 2021 and think that was less painful than the 2019 surgery.

Everyone is different, Take the pain medication per their schedule and do your breathing exercises. I had shortness of breath because I didn't exercise enough. That was my mistake.

Wishing you the best

Hello @elyser, I agree with the others, the modern approach to pain management is very different that it used to be. You may want to check out this discussion too: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pain-after-left-upper-lobectomy/

Do you have a mass/nodule? Do they know what type of lung cancer it is yet?

Hi Lisa @lls8000. Thanks for your response. I have a carcinoma with "pleomorphic features." I found that googling "pleomorphic" gave me more negative information ("rare" "aggressive" etc.) than I wanted to deal with at this time and my surgeon believes the nodule is small enough that removal of the lobe will be effective. I don't know what kind of treatment will be next. I haven't spoken with an oncologist yet.

Hello I had a left lower lung lobectomy in March of this year. I was very uncomfortable in the hospital with the chest tube but once it was taken out I had a lot less pain and mobility. Once I was home it was so much better. I agree try to set yourself up well in bed. I kept everything I was going to need on the right side of my bed to avoid moving around too much. Do take your pain medication on time. I am 7 weeks out from my surgery and while I’m not back to normal each week I see an improvement and walking has helped a lot. I hope everything goes well for you. Just one thing I would like to add be your own advocate if you are in pain or uncomfortable speak up. This was my second major surgery as I had colon cancer as well and a colon resection in January so I think my recovery may be taking a little longer. Try not to think about it or worry, doesn’t change anything and in the end it’s all ok and life goes on. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

That is the wonderful thing about this site! I learned so much before and after my surgery. Things to do, questions to ask, mental health, etc. Stay on with us and let us know how you are doing! We all care about and some of us say prayers for the other people on this site. Never hurts! Just remember ee are here for the good and bad. We are a community of people who are fighting this disease in one way or another and there are so many different experiences that I’m pretty sure someone will give you great advice that will fit your situation! God Bless You!

I have been through it and as cmcguire says walk, walk and walk. Yes there will be some nasty pain but be sure to take the pain killers for this as it will make it easier for you to walk, walk and then walk some more.