[livingwith]

After three hospital stays within five months for diverticulosis, I decided to have the colon section. I’m 70 years old, and not exactly in great shape. I had a colon resection done on June 19th, and the surgery went exceptionally well. I was operated on laparoscopically at the University of Wisconsin hospital by Dr. Kennedy who is also certified at Mayo’s. I had one 2 inch incision, and three 1/2 inch incisions for the camera. Approx. 14 inches of my colon was removed. It all wen...Read the full article

[melvin]

I'm glad to read about your colon resection. It looks as though it in the cards for me as well. Please tell me if there is a lot of pain, and can I manage by myself when I go home, as I live alone. Also, how long were you in the hospital? I have five outside dogs to feed, and I wonder if I can do that myself. Thanks very much.

[Redtape]

The only real significant pain I had was for a few hours after I woke up, but they had a button to press for pain killer. I had my surgery about 3 PM, and the next morning I was joking around, albeit with some discomfort and modest pain. Also right after surgery you're not 100% awake and it's certainly bearable. Every day brought improvement, and by the fouth day I was ready to go home, but the doctor made me wait until the following morning. So four and a half to five days in total, but I was still moving tentatively when walking. After I got home I took one tylenol pill for pain, and I never did fill the pain Rx that they gave to me at the hospital - virtually no pain once I got home. I believe I went out to lunch a day after getting home, but I didn't drive for a few days or so. You will be prone to sitting around and relaxing more than usual, but you should be able to feed your pets without a problem as long as it doesn't involve lifting 50 lb. bags of dog food. In a week or two you'll be amazed to be functioning near normal, but they will probably restrict your lifting to 25 lbs. for about 2 months. One thing to be careful of is an infection. I did not get an infection, but I have heard of cases where it was a real problem. Since you live alone, I would suggest that you might plan ahead and have some of you dog food premeasued out and ready to go. And think about other things that you might not be able to do for a few weeks due to the lifting restriction. I have a riding tractor to mow my lawn with, and I was on it within a week of getting home. You probably should not push a push mower for some time, because they are concerned about the incision rupturing if you exert yourself (my incision was only 2 or 2 1/2 inches long, with 3 other tiny incisions for the cameras).

Oh yes, they'll give you a device to breath into to keep your lungs active. Do it religously. I didn't use it much, and I paid the price with an upper respiratory problem that caused me to go back to the ER. After about three weeks it cleared up, but it's scarry when you think you can't breath. They were reluctant to give me more antibiotics due to all the previous meds I had taken.

Remember that you'll be very glad that you went through it and you won't have to contend with the potential problem hanging over your head all the time. Been there, done that. No thanks.

GOOD LUCK!