Hello, I’m 6 weeks out from a wedge resection RATS surgery with lymph node sampling. I had 6 incisions total. My nodule, was thankfully benign.
I’m 52 and with only a wedge resection, I needed oxycodone for at least two weeks, mostly at night just to sleep. I am finally off of the narcotic, but the rate of recovery is not linear, at all, which can be really frustrating . For a reference to my pain tolerance threshold, I have had a hemorrhoidectomy after the birth of my first child. I have also had a C-section and just regular childbirth. I would say that the hemorrhoidectomy was the absolute worst pain of my entire life. The wedge resection pain for me is high, but manageable with pain medication.
Initially, I was slowly getting better, but occasionally I would have some kind of relapse where I needed the pain meds, again. That was really aggravating.
Another problem that I had was extreme nausea. I would take simethicone for that, and it seemed to help a little bit. I didn’t really get a good answer for my surgeon on why I was so nauseous but I’ve heard it’s very common. I am also only eating small meals a few times a day because I just don’t seem to have the room in my stomach now without getting acid reflux. I had not experienced acid reflux in about 15 years prior to the surgery.
I also tried sleeping on the side with the incisions, but that would make me more nauseous. As if I wasn’t miserable enough, I developed sciatica because I could only sleep on my left side which aggravated my hip. Some people experience constipation because of the pain meds, but I just took magnesium pills and that wasn’t a big problem for me.
One thing that really helped with my pain when I was walking, I put an ace bandage snugly wrapped around my incision areas, not too tight though. This helped me because when I walked it felt like everything was jiggling on the outside and inside which exacerbated the pain. This also helped to reduce the need for pain medication. I also thought the compression would help decrease the swelling and inflammation. I would run it by your doctor though, because nothing can interfere with your breathing recovery. I am still wearing the ace bandage today, and it really does help a lot.
I am still numb on my stomach and I do have these weird sharp pains that stop me in my tracks sometimes, but I just try to slow down and take it easy.
At first, you will need to sleep in an upright position for several days. If you lie straight down on your back, it is really uncomfortable. I could not figure out how to get back up because the incisions had apparently cut some muscles in my stomach. I would do a side roll on my good side to get out of bed and that was easiest.
I also put an ice pack on my belly close to, or on top of my incisions because my entire belly was burning up on the side of my surgery. It’s like you have a sunburn and that is one of the problems with the pain for me. I also thought that the ice would help reduce swelling inside of my belly for a quick recovery. I do think that this helped me recover quickly but who knows?

Please make sure you have someone to help you with food, drinks and your medications. I bought a tray size medication dispenser which really helped a lot. I pre-filled it so that it would be all ready to go just in case I needed it in the middle of the night.
I also used a Pill Reminder app to help me remember which pills I took and when. I uploaded a picture of the app I used. It helped me so much. It also has alarms on it to remind you when to take your pills. I was by myself a few days after my surgery because my husband had a baseball tournament, but this really saved me.

Good luck with your surgery and especially your recovery. Just keep in mind that you will get better, but it’s going to take a few months. I hope this information helped you.