Pain after lobectomy (lung cancer) surgery: When will it go away?

@cmcguire10 I know you are absoutely right!!!
My appt is Oct 6th so I am almost there.
We get Ancy. Meaning I dont sit still well !!!!!

@victoriaa - I totally get you! I am the same way! I feel if I don’t keep moving I will turn into a puddle of goo!😳 It was really hard for me not to just jump back in to what I was used to doing and lifting things and twisting and turning doing things, but the first time I did more than what I should have, I sure felt the pain! Wasn’t immediately, it came later. Actually had to take an 800 mg ibuprofen for it. Made me realize I needed more time to heal and had to move a little slower and more purposeful. It will come. I now am back to running around like a nut and pretty much doing what I could before. I still get the rib and back pain, (mostly from bras riding on where the incisions were) but kind of just “deal” with those. More aggravating than painful. Take your time! You will get there. Too fast, you’ll end up going backwards. Hoping you have a good check up! Write down all your questions so you come away with it feeling confident! Best wishes for you!🙏🙏🙏

Welcome to our group @leathu, I'm glad that you found us. How are you doing now? How long ago were you diagnosed? And are you on a targeted therapy now, post-surgery?

@victoriaa

I've been known to get antsy too.

@cmcguire10 Thanks for that. I was also asking about exercise as in only 7 weeks post-op. Another poster wrote about a very rigorous gym routine that scared the heck out of me. I can barely walk 2 km right now. I appreciate your affirming approach.

@magwriter - Thank you. I only try to help from my experiences. I’m sure there are others on here that bounce back amazingly fast and can do rigorous exercises fairly quickly after a surgery, but I think most of us are not that lucky. I have just started doing certain exercises and it’s been 2 & 1/2 years since my surgery. I used to have a very toned body, now I have a little sag where I never did. But, I’m here and that’s the important part! I’m going very slow because that nerve under the front/side of my ribs will still let me know if I do too much. I am trying to strengthen my stomach and core. I do slow squats and walk about 5 miles a day. (Not all at once but throughout the day), and am trying to lay on my back and bring my knee up to the opposite elbow. Not crunches or sit ups. I just started this a couple of weeks ago. I do, now, walk at a face pace, but I started slow. My husband and I do a nightly walk that is about 1 & 1/2 miles, after dinner. It all helps. You are VERY early out of surgery so take your time. If you do something and it hurts, STOP. Hope you are doing well and I pray you have a full recovery!🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏❤️

@babs1956 No they did not. The lack of answers is frustrating. I am concerned there is more going on there. I have a lot of other recurring symptoms and several specialists but no real answers. In addition to the chest pain, numbness and tingling I have blurred vision, night sweats, heart palpitations, tremors (mostly in my hands but sometimes my whole body) the tremors are definitely worse in cold or heat. The list goes on. I have had a multitude of tests to no avail. My cancer survival doctor say that with my consistently elevated neutrophil levels I definitely have something undiagnosed and to keep searching. She is the only one. Everyone else just says we found nothing or minor things that add up to nothing. See you in another year. At this point I feel deflated. I can work through most of this stuff every day so I guess that is something. Just being able to talk about it without judgment helps.

@danielleo77 I’m so very sorry. In time, I’m sure you’ll feel a lot better. Keep the faith.

@magwriter I am an avid bike rider, 5 days a week, 8 miles each day. I think the pain is eventually going to go away with time. I am not taking any type of pain meds.

I hate to be the voice of doom and gloom, but I was having continued pain following a robotic surgery to remove part of a left lobe. I was diagnosed with nsclc stage 1b. Pain continued for months, and I was continually calling the surgeon's office, who told me some people just take longer to heal than others.

I had an oncologist keeping up with me, and ordering love those CTS every 3 months. Well it was coming up a year on the surgery, and something showed up on the loto CT. They sent me in for a PET scan which showed that I had progressed to stage 4. That's the stage I referred to as bend over and kiss your ass goodbye! The cancer was too small during the other CT is to show the cancer spreading, so it wasn't until it progressed farther along that it showed up on the low dose CT

You said they're running lots of tests, but has anybody ordered another pet scan on you? It can take a while for changes to show up on the low dose CT. In my next life, I'll make sure they do a pet scan earlier, and to stand up for myself a little better. Perhaps I could have been more assertive.

Anyway, good luck to you! And don't feel bad about bugging the doctors like I did.
Sandy