How was your pain after a lobectomy?

Hi Elsyer,
Good luck on Friday.
I had a robot assisted lower left lobe segmentectomy last Friday. Today is Tuesday and I'm doing pretty well. My family says I look better every day. This morning, I walked to the end of the street and back and up the stairs into my house. This afternoon, I overdid a little carrying something and had to lie on the couch and watch tv for an hour or so. My cough is getting productive and clutching a pillow to my side does the trick. I'm trying to stay on my feet as much as I can, do the breathing exercises, avoid pneumonia, and get my lungs back.
I was in the hospital for two nights. As everyone here says, the chest tube is the worst. As soon as that was out, pain went from 8 to 4. No, wait, the nausea was the worst! I had nausea, constantly. The took me off dilaudid but kept me on tramadol. As soon as they d/c ed the tramadol, the nausea subsided and I became cheerful again. It's amazing how you forgot the yucky stuff.
The pain in my side ( I have 5 small incisions and a larger wound from the tube) got a little worse today. I took off the big dressing yesterday and took a shower, but also my pulmonogogist had told me that the pain would be worst on day 3 because of the narcotics being thoroughly gone. It's well controlled with ibuprofen, acetominophen and methocarbamol, a muscle relaxor.
Sleeping hasn't been a problem, I have a wedge under the head of my mattress to control reflux. I have two pillows around my head and shoulders. This has me in a good enough position to not feel the incisions.
I'll be thinking of you on Friday. You started quite a nice, very informative thread of comments here. Good luck to you!
Muffy

Hi,
Yes, it’s been nonstop pain. I’m writing this in the ER. I woke up with a huge hump of air all down my left back.
I’m going to be admitted so that a radiologist can insert a small chest tube in the hopes of releasing the air.
My doctor came by and said the CT showed some fluid.
So…
If the small chest tube can’t drain everything, then he will have to put a regular chest tube in and see where there could have been a “dislodgment” that caused this sudden change.
I am so done.

@elyser, I had an upper right lobectomy in 2018. I was 58 at the time and in good shape. The surgeon used the da Vinci 2 robot. I think they are up to da Vinci 5 or 6 by now.

The surgery and recovery were OK. As others have said, the chest tube was uncomfortable -- until I coughed! My nurse told me to clutch my pillow to my chest, and she was right that it's quickly over. I though sneezing was even worse, but fotunately, I only sneezed once. I slept in a recliner for the first few nights to stay more upright. After that, pillows in the bed were good enough.

I hurried into recovery exercises too fast. According to my physical therapist friend, that's common for people around 60! We know to rest at first, but then we think we'll bounce back faster than our bodies do at that age. So give yourself some time to recover and then ease into any stretching exercises your surgeon or oncologist provide.

All in all, it wasn't bad. I hope you feel the same after your procedure!