How do I prepare for HIPEC surgery? What can I expect after surgery?

Congratulations for qualifying for HIPEC. That is great news.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/hyperthermic-intraperitoneal-chemotherapy/about/pac-20583315
I had mine in 2022 with cytoreductive surgery and a peritonectomy.

You will lose a lot of weight in hospital as a result of being fed intravenously while your surgery heals. The medical staff will want you to make sure you are carrying excess weight before surgery. They wanted me to drink high fat and high protein drinks which I hated!! Had to hold my nose to get them down. I wish I’d had more time to put on weight.

There’s so much to say it’s hard to choose and summarise! My hospital in Australia had me in for several information sessions before admission. You really need to attend those if available at your hospital. One of them was to teach me to put on a stoma bag just in case I needed one after surgery (luckily I didn’t).

Apart from making sure you walk lots in hospital (they’ll get you up!) in order to heal properly and quickly, before you go into hospital make sure you have everything set up so you don’t need to stretch or bend or carry heavy things. The massive cut in your abdomen from pubic bone to inbetween your breasts is the thing you’ll need to take a lot of care of. The physio will teach you how to sit up and get out of bed without stressing or opening your wound.

Pain management in hospital was fabulous.

Happy to answer any questions!

@isadora2021 very useful post..thank you ! Much of it also helps with surgery in general.

@parkerandkeenan, I hope you saw the helpful post from @isadora2021. You might also appreciate this related discussion:
- Debulking and HIPEC surgery what experiences, anyone?https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/debulking-and-hipec-surgery-what-experiences-anyone/

See all HIPEC-related discussions: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/discussions/

When will you have hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) surgery?

Has anyone had HYPEC surgery?
What were your results?
What was your recovery time?
Was it a good decision?

@parkerandkeenan, I'm tagging a few members like @isadora2021 @dnfjc @dvosburg @linda4765 who have experience with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) surgery.

Please also see the previous comments in this discussion.

@parkerandkeenan, will you be having HIPEC soon?

@parkerandkeenan I had mine on 9 May 2022 with cytoreductive surgery (including a peritonectomy). I am forever grateful that I qualified and I would do it again in a heart beat. No ifs or buts. It’s a game changer. I’ve been in remission ever since with no evidence of disease.

My cancer isn’t curable and I may need to do it again at some point. With surveillance scanning it will be caught earlier next time around 🙏

The surgery is intense but the pain management by the hospital afterwards was incredible including a brief stint of ketamine immediately post op then the infusion bag full of pain killers with a button you could press with shut offs so you couldn’t overdose. I also had an epidural on the operating table immediately before I went under.

That careful pain monitoring and management by the hospital is what makes HIPEC + CRS manageable. So important to co operate in walking around the wards post surgery - I’ve mentioned that in an earlier comment here.

I bounced back really quickly and I put it down to how much walking I did in hospital - slowly building until I was covering a lot of ground over the day.

It’s difficult to give an actual time period because it’s big surgery but it was surprisingly very manageable for me. I had no issues in hospital and everything went very smoothly

I'm concerned about my weight loss after chemo treatments. I was advised to gain a substantial amount of weight before surgery due to the amount of weight I will loose in the hospital. Some patients felt the low weight caused a s!power recuperation. Your thoughts?
Thank you so much! Sharing your story is giving more confidence about the surgery.

@parkerandkeenan I lost a fair amount of weight during chemo and then a little more with HIPEC but it seems that most of it was muscle loss from being more sedentary during that recovery time. Gradually after surgery I was able to balance rest with walking and I built my strength up in the months after. I was off from work about 12 weeks after HIPEC and would say I was back to normal about 6 months after surgery. I would do this surgery again in a heartbeat. If I were you, I would not worry about gaining weight for surgery.

@parkerandkeenan I had surgery in November of 2020 after 6 rounds of FOLFOX for my stage 4 adenocarcinoma of the appendix, I have no evidence of disease today, I was in the hospital for 5 days after surgery, 12 weeks at home after that. Biggest thing to help recovery was rest and walking. Get up and move in the hospital as much as you are able even if it seems unmanageable. So thankful for this surgery!