1. < Lung Cancer

How was your pain after a lobectomy?

Posted by elyser @elyser, Apr 24 1:02pm

I'll be having a lobectomy (lower left) in early May and am very anxious about the post-surgery pain. Many years ago (about 35) I had a hysterectomy and remember being in tremendous pain when I woke up -- like nothing I had experienced before. That eased up while I was in the hospital but at home I had a lot of pain again. I think things have changed, the surgery itself as well as the approach to pain, but I am scared. How has it been for others?

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elyser | @elyser | 1 day ago

Thanks for checking in @maryckolben! My surgery is Friday.

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gprior | @gprior | 1 day ago

Do let us know how you fare with your surgery. I too have been thinking of you and wish you all the very best. You are probably getting quite anxious but as I said previously you'll be OK and by this time next week it'll be all over. Pain is managed and don't forget your cushion to hug, helps a lot when coughing etc. Wish you a speedy recovery

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muffyy | @muffyy | 19 hours ago

Hello moderator
I wrote a comment here and was in the middle of editing and must have posted it by accident. Can I get it back to finish?
Thanks,
Muffy

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pingguo | @pingguo | 15 hours ago
In reply to @cmcguire10 "I had an upper left lobe Segmentectomy, not a full lobectomy, in March of 2023. I..." + (show)
@cmcguire10

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!🙏🙏🙏

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Admire you, such a good planer!

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1 reply
yellowstonelady | @yellowstonelady | 11 hours ago

I had upper right and middle right lobes removed in 2000 at age 46. I have a problem with oxy type drugs as they make me throw up. I had an epidural but after a few days it was making me hallucinate so they removed it too. So my pain was very bad. I was in hospital for about 11 days. I'd grown up on a farm and been hurt countless ways working around big animals but never ever had I experienced such pain as my bilobectomy.

Two years later I had my hysterectomy C section which was a walk through the park. Easy and the pain was 1/1000 of the bilobectomy. I was out running about campus in a few days.

Now I am 71 and there is just about no way on earth anyone could ever convince me to have another lobectomy.

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cmcguire10 | @cmcguire10 | 10 hours ago
In reply to @pingguo "Admire you, such a good planer!" + (show)
@pingguo

Admire you, such a good planer!

Jump to this post

Honestly, I planned so much that I probably didn’t need half of what I got but better to have and not need than to need and not have. I learned a lot from this site ahead of time. I was more worried about taking care of my family’s stress because it eased mine that way. I felt I was in Great hands at Mayo, so I was more worried about my husband stressing over taking care of me when I got home, so I tried to make it easier on him which made it easier on me. 🤗

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