Post Operative Fatigue

Tomahawk

Tomahawk

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Both First officer and myself have recently undergone small surgical operations for various problems..

After the op both of us have felt completely exhausted and fatigued.. So much so that it has been difficult to get out of bed for more than a few hours at a time.. yet the operations were quite quick and very localised..

Is this normal? Have other folks experienced similar post operation fatigue?

There is an ulterior motive here.. We had planned to set off sailing at the beginning of September but we can't do that until we have bot recovered ..
 
I had a local for my foot... (there are pickies somewere)
FO had a general as well as local ring block for her shoulder..

The bit I don't understand is the sense of depression and general being fed up.
 
Tomahawk said:
I had a local for my foot... (there are pickies somewere)
FO had a general as well as local ring block for her shoulder..

The bit I don't understand is the sense of depression and general being fed up.
Click to expand...

Depression and being fed up is normal, your body has been invaded,as you heal so will the drepression.

good luck.
 
I would not say it was normal based on my own experiences but I guess it must depend on where and what has been done to you. Had an umbilical hernia op a year ago - full anaesthetic and a 2 inch slit in my stomach wall etc. Out and about the next day driving the car to pick up swmbo from the airport. True she had to lift her own suitcase and I had to be careful with the stitches eyc, but I didnt feel lethargic or depressed. Felt as if I had had a good nights sleep after the anaesthetic.

But thats one persons reactions and yours may well be different. Trouble is with two of you suffering,. what one says will re-inforce the feelings of the other. One depressed both depressed. One manic cheerful both cheerful.
 
SWMBO had a day surgery minor investigation under a general intravenous anaesthetic. Our arrival was at 0730, the op around 20 minutes, her recovery 2 hours (she's a sleepy head anyway) and we finally left hospital at 1600. I was totally shattered and the next day too.

As someone whose life is frenetic, I put it down to "switching off".
 
Apart from the anaesthetic, an operation such as a hernia that involves cutting represents an injury to the body. The body's reaction to this is to go into a period of katabolism - the opposite of anabolism that some athletes are fond of - and this may lead to weight loss and fatigue, although slight in the case of minor ops. It is more or less unavoidable and activity can be guided by how one feels.
 
Graham_Wright said:
SWMBO had a day surgery minor investigation under a general intravenous anaesthetic. Our arrival was at 0730, the op around 20 minutes, her recovery 2 hours (she's a sleepy head anyway) and we finally left hospital at 1600. I was totally shattered and the next day too.

As someone whose life is frenetic, I put it down to "switching off".
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I agree there is a switching off phenomenom, I generally crash and burn for the first couple of days of hols as my body copes with the change of pace, and goes into recovery mode. Your anaesthetic may well have exaggerated this.
 
Broke my leg skiing in January 2009. The plate they put in (titanium, yet :eek:) broke in August, requiring a second operation!!!

Neither time was a quick recovery, requiring weeks on the couch. My mind recovered (although some friends still doubt it) but my body really hasn't. The entire almost year that my muscles were "on vacation" really put a dent in my endurance and the niggling constant light pain in my knee is, well, a pain.

Both my doctors and my PT say that being on the boat is the best exercise I can get.

I like their attitude.

I also am not fond of exercise for exercise sake, even though it was proscribed. One of these days I gotta force myself to do exercises and get on the stationary bike we have at home.

Brings a new meaning to "I'd Rather Be Sailing!" :cool:
 
Tomahawk said:
Both First officer and myself have recently undergone small surgical operations for various problems..

After the op both of us have felt completely exhausted and fatigued.. So much so that it has been difficult to get out of bed for more than a few hours at a time.. yet the operations were quite quick and very localised..

Is this normal? Have other folks experienced similar post operation fatigue?

There is an ulterior motive here.. We had planned to set off sailing at the beginning of September but we can't do that until we have bot recovered ..
Click to expand...

Perfectly normal. I used to work on a day surgery unit and we always used to warn the patients that they could feel tired for a good while. Did you have general anaesthetics or local?
 
I had keyhole surgery to my elbow some years ago to remove some cartilage fragments. General anaesthetic. They weren't causing any pain, just caused the elbow to lock which then unlocked slowly over a period of weeks. A bit worrying especially if wanting to sail single handed. Now I'm not sure that I neccessarily believe in everything about homeopathy, but had read that as an operation is a controlled injury, one should take arnica pills for five days before. I had some lying around so thought , why not ? When I came round they offered me pain killers, I said I had no pain. They said, you will when the anaesthetic finally wears off. Well it did and I still had no pain. They said have some for when you go home and for the next week. I still had no pain and never did. My recovery was very easy.Worth a try ?
 
For a general anaesthetic, a former GP of mine reckoned 12 months to be fully over the effects. I think that was OTT! But they will almost automatically sign you off work for a month following a general. And he was talking about a major operation, 2 hours plus under deep anaesthesia. Unfortunately I can't report on my reaction to the anaesthetic; the healing process took at least 12 months (orthopaedic surgery). I have had a general anaesthetic more recently, but again other complications meant that response to the anaesthetic was the least of my problems.

I was given the option of spinal block or general for an operation on my water-works a few years ago, and opted for the spinal block. I react badly to general anaesthetic (I was sick as a dog for two days following the big operation), but with the spinal block, I was feeling fine as soon as feeling returned to the bottom half of my body!
 
Seriously though.. many thanks for your help..
It does seem as though there are many aspects to medical procedures they don't tell you about..

I did find it very difficult to concentrate after my op. FO hs experienced the same.
We have both felt very depressed... even though we knew that it had been a success.
The fatigue seems out of proportion to our expectation

I am not sure if the good doctors don't say anything about the negative after effects because they fear that patients will be scared off, or if they are simply ignorant on account of being focussed on carrying out operations instead of post operative care.. For myself I would not have foregone the procedure (Mortons neuroma) if I had understood more about the post operation recovery, but at least I would have known what to expect.. (I suppose it is a bit like knowing that when you open the second bottle of claret you will have a hangover)
 
AntarcticPilot said:
For a general anaesthetic, a former GP of mine reckoned 12 months to be fully over the effects. I think that was OTT! But they will almost automatically sign you off work for a month following a general.
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Advice following daycase procedures under general anaesthesia is not to drive for 24 hours - but this really is pretty arbitrary advice, since recovery is extremely variable and surgical factors obviously need to be taken into account.
I recall an amusing tale, which I think was true, of an anaesthetist who was travelling home by bus one evening. He was taken aback to discover that he had anaesthetised the driver earlier in the day!:eek:
 
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