Week after surgery, is this normal?

User

Posted 20 Feb 2021 at 13:08

I'm now eight days post RALP. Had a real mixed week, took five days to empty bowels and now I get sharp pains whenever I need to go despite things being soft and passing easily. Not felt the best since yesterday, noticed I'm getting burning in my stomach, especially around the middle incision wound and left one which are the bigger ones. Anyone else get this?

Also there's quite a bit of swelling around the wound sites, again the middle one above my belly button has a significant lump above it which I can't remember if it's grown in size. Is that normal?

Unfortunately you get sent home and told about possible issues you might get with the catheter but nothing else that you need to keep and eye on.

User

Posted 20 Feb 2021 at 14:21

You've had lots of abdominal muscles cut. It's early days yet. You will get muscular pain as the muscles start to rejoin. It takes months to fully heal. Don't push it.

Chris

User

Posted 20 Feb 2021 at 14:38

And when they say don't strain, they mean don't strain. Where are you getting pains?

I still have a bit of a lump around the middle cut, 11 months later, so I'd say probably nothing to worry about. Having had surgery before, the thing to watch out for is if it starts looking "angry" and causing pain, which probably indicates infection. Didn't have any such problems with the RP.

User

Posted 20 Feb 2021 at 15:16

Hi,

I'd give it a bit of time. Have you been to the nurse to have staples removed. Or the nurse taking out the catheter. Did she say anything?

A few twinges are pretty standard. Along with bits of blood in the urine bag if you've still got the catheter.

I once strained my stomach about a month after by lifting something.

Once you start worrying one thing leads to another. If it goes a funny colour or starts giving off strange fluids I'd ring 111 or the hospital, especially if you have a Macmillan Nurse. Although there are PCUK nurses on the end of the phone.

All the best
Peter

User

Posted 21 Feb 2021 at 08:34

Keep taking the pain killers and take it easy. Keep an eye out for flu like symptoms that would indicate an infection. Otherwise all sounds pretty normal..

User

Posted 21 Feb 2021 at 18:08

Thanks all, sounds reassuring. I've been leaking a bit more today but no blood, just urine. Apart from that I did manage a short slow walk which was ok except for the urine leaking!

See nurses for review Thursday and I hope to have catheter removed.

User

Posted 21 Feb 2021 at 23:02

Ah, I think that I'm now seeing what your issue might be - leaking round the catheter. That's not unusual, at least so I was told after it happened to me the first time. And I often had a bit of blood in it - pink wee. As my bladder siezes up under general anaesthetic, I've had a catheter about 4 times now.

The only time to worry is if your bag isn't filling - it probably means that the catheter is blocked (happened to me after the biopsy - not pleasant). As you're now over a week, there's little chance of that happening now IMO.

User

Posted 22 Feb 2021 at 12:49

Check with your medical team of course....

Once the catheter is out, I recommend regular kegels to help with continence and ED.

There are apps that help with this.

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