I went in for my op on a Tuesday and went home on the Saturday. It has to be said that I have never experienced pain like it. For 3 days post op I had my own morphine pca, basically press a button for pain relief. I kind of liked it but after a while morphine is very strong so the docs and nurses wean you off it. Oohhh noo. Anyway, my body basically felt like I'd done 10 rounds in a boxing ring. My stomach was swollen and tender. I had a catheter in for most of the week and didn't go for a number 2 for a good 3/4 days.
As you are less reliant on morphine, you are encouraged to move around a bit more as that's gets your body working and heading back to some kind of normality. Generally at the beginning when I tried standing and walking around I felt dizzy and unsteady but slowly but surely I got used to it. It was nice to walk over to talk to other people on the ward. I certainly was no 100 metre sprinter and generally had a hand pressed on my abdomen as it gave me some comfort.
Once the morphine had gone it was onto those lovely painkiller 'cocktails' codeine, ibuprofen and paracetamol. Lots to begin with at regular intervals during the day. Week 1 and week 2 post op were definitely the most painful.
It hurt to past wind - oh my god did it hurt. Part of the stomach bloating is due to a build up of gas so that needed a means of escape and it was certainly painful, you really found out how gas passes through your body, could have made your own map! Sneezing also hurt, as did laughing. All these normally usual bodily functions turned into pain.
Getting out of bed was another excuse for pain. As your ab muscles are not working, being able to manoeuvre yourself in and out of bed, chairs or anything else was an art in itself. The trick was to rotate your legs to be over the side of the bed then to swing your body over and push yourself up with your arms.
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