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Recovery from appendectomy?
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Has anyone has appendectomy surgery?
I just had an emergency Laparoscopic appendectomy on Sunday and I was wondering how long it took to get back to doing any type of physical activity?.
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [trener1] [ In reply to ]
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Well I was 8 years old at the time..... so probs not the best comparison, but it was emergency surgery. I was in hospital for 5 days afterwards with an infection. I'll spare the details, but it I remember clearly it taking me 2 weeks before I was running around with other kids like I usually did. Don't suppose you have much of a scar? Chicks dig scars..


Don't forget to unclip!
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [trener1] [ In reply to ]
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I had an emergency laparoscopic appendectomy (and an asymptomatic hernia closure too) in December. My surgeon told me to take a week off. I had the surgery done on a Tuesday, and I believe I rode the following Wednesday, so took 8 days off total. Just easy rides of around an hour to avoid Christmas fattening. Maybe two weeks before I was ready to hit it hard on the bike and 3 til I started running and playing hockey. I played it pretty conservatively though. I didn't want to push anything given that I was visiting my parents in the US and my travel health insurance was unlikely to cover me if anything happened due to the pre-existing condition.

I'll throw in the caveat that I am only 23, so I bounced back pretty quickly.
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [trener1] [ In reply to ]
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I had the same procedure in high school but that was 21 years ago so I can't offer tremendous detail. I do know that it happened in mid March and it ended my Track season that spring. I was in the hospital for five days but I don't recall when I resumed running. I just know that I wasn't able to get myself into competitive condition for the District meet which was probably early April. Its a case by case basis so I wouldn't let anything I or anyone else says. This isn't knee surgery so the good news is that once your up to it your body will still work like it did before.
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [trener1] [ In reply to ]
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Had the same thing about 2.5 years ago. Mine might have been a little more invasive since I let it go for 5 days before the wife dragged me to the ER (side note, don't do that). Was only riding at the time, not running or swimming. 3 days in the hospital, took probably about a week and a half completely off. I think I did a couple short trainer rides for the next week. By 3 weeks I was definitely back riding outdoors, at least feeling 80-90% of normal or so.
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [trener1] [ In reply to ]
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Bumping this one as I had an emergency lathroscopic appendectomy on Friday and didn't seem to be getting straight answers from the surgeons.

Surgeon 1 - (who recommended surgery the night before) said that I'd be a few days on the couch and then back biking in a week. Just no lifting / weights for about 4 weeks.

Surgeon 2 - (who did the surgery the next morning) said that I'd be off work for a few weeks. When I said that the guy yesterday gave me a very different answer, he responded with "well, you know... coronavirus..." (wait... what????)

So needless to say I'm a bit confused as to what I can expect. Its day 3 and I'm up and about but still sore when using my core. I'm more inclined to trust the first guy since we had a talk about my exercise habits and general health whereas the other guy I met for 30 seconds pre op and he could probably assume that most people he sees aren't that active.

Any other triathletes have any experience with this? I'm 38 years old, was training for 70.3MT looking to hit 4:40 as a goal, and regularly work on strength as part of training. I train ~9hrs / week in the winter and ~15 in the summer. Obviously I dont want to push anything too soon, but wouldn't mind knowing what the recovery horizon is.
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [timbasile] [ In reply to ]
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Had an Appy 3 years ago. In the hospital for less than 24 hours from ER arrival to surgery to discharge. The first 3-4 days suck, coughing is the enemy and getting out of bed. Went back to work on day 5 and went for a few short walks on day 6 and 7. Follow up appointment 1 week out and then 30 minutes on the bike to get moving. 2 weeks after I was running and riding again. 3 weeks out I was racing cyclocross.

Take your time and protect yourself against a hernia with those fresh scars. Get the bowels moving and get the bloating from the air they pumped in during surgery out of you before activity,
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [kppolich] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks. Recovery is now going well - 3 or 4 days of suck, followed by getting back to normal very quickly. Yesterday, day 8, I tried 30 mins easy on the trainer. Today I managed 60 mins easy. I might try an easy run tomorrow depending on how I fare, but so far so good. So far I seem to be able to lift some things but its the bend and twist that I can't quite do yet - though I'll try to keep it in check. Back to work (from home) tomorrow.

You were right about coughing - that's the hard part.
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [timbasile] [ In reply to ]
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The good news is there is nothing to get in race shape for on the even reasonably near horizon. My appy doc thought 2-3 weeks no heavy lifting or hard workouts. With the caveat he knew I probably only give it two. He is a riding buddy and pretty fit guy. He was right on all counts. I really didn't do any "heavy" lifting for about a month and just sort of did half to two thirds efforts for about the same. The big risk of doing too much too soon is if you herniate any of the puncture sites, you have to get it patched and start over. My only complaint is the bellybutton hole changed my navel inside shape and I have to fish the lint out. It used to be pretty much self cleaning. Sounds like you have a pretty good start and knowledge on the course to take.
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [timbasile] [ In reply to ]
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Well, that may have been too much too soon. I ended up only doing 30 mins easy on day 8 and 1h easy on day 9. Waking up on day 10, I could feel that I had pushed too hard, both on the bike and with life. For now the challenge is remembering that I can't do certain stuff (e.g. like picking up my 2 year old daughter, or walk quickly up the stairs).

For now the plan is to wait until the weekend before I try anything else on the bike (day 15), which sounds like when everyone else started up again too. I'm trying to balance "races being cancelled so take your time" against "stuck inside all day."
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Re: Recovery from appendectomy? [timbasile] [ In reply to ]
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I’m on day 10.

My surgeon said after day 5, as long as it doesn’t hurt I can do it. I still hurt and am not well enough to ride.

I usually heal quickly, but this thing is still really Sore. I’m jealous of those of you who are back within a week! Luckyy
Last edited by: mvenneta: Feb 2, 22 20:35
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