how long does it take the body to get over surgery?
I am penned in for another bout of surgery to replace my left hip.
it will be the third time In 4 years.
once I had got my heart problem sorted, I managed to get pretty fit and managed to keep my weight under control. then I had a ankle operation a year ago.
since then I have been unable to get any fitness back at all.
I ride everyday, steadily tho. I cant get up to any decent speed. and climbing is a slow spin.
got the feeling that after my next bout of surgery, I am going to be even worse.

does surgery take that much of a toll on the body?

I think there’s several things to recover from;

1) the shock – your body feels like it’s been assaulted and this, for me, also leads to a mental reaction.

2) The wound – the access they cut to do the actual op

3) The new hip (in your case, pinned hip in mine).

For the shock I think you’ll already know that – I’m just tired for a week or so and feel a bit ‘vulnerable’.

At least with a hip replacement there’s no bone healing to be done, you just have to allow for the wound to heal – so a few weeks. I think you’re able to walk within days with a replacement hip so Id’ do that, even if it’s partial weight bearign with crutches. Do lots of stretches and any strengthenign the physio recommends.

Good luck and, I suspect, you’ll be back being active quiote quickly as you don;t have the 6 week weight for any bone to mend before you start your muscle recovery process and try and regain lost strength.

Ageing doesn’t help, though IME it took about a year to get back to where I was following my first hernia op – it wasn’t the op as such though, but the enforced weeks off following it. Unfortunately just about at that point I had my second hernia op, and I don’t think I’ve ever got back from that – the trouble being that I’ve subsequently ended up getting injured in my attempts to get back and then it’s coincided with a loss of motivation due to other things going on in my life.

If you manage it properly you should be able to get back to where you were, but it might take a bit more in the way of proper structured training than you normally do if you want to shorten the process.

Ageing is definitely an issue though – I’m currently still recovering from a couple of soft tissue injuries I got in June and July (caused by sudden events/impact rather than overdoing things) which I reckon would have been sorted in a couple of weeks when I was younger.

It really varies for me – took me months to get over it a few years ago (well 2 surgies in 7 days) felt ruined for 6 months or so, whereas when I went under to have some of the metal work removed 18 months later I came around about 10am, Mrs. Picked me up at 11am and we went shopping.

I know from sharing a ward with Lads having hip ops they’ll want you up and moving within 24 hours, but it’s a fairly brutal procedure – I wouldn’t put a deadline on it, let your body heal and don’t push yourself – let pain tell you when to stop.

Guess it depends on age, fitness and how invasive the surgery is.
Can be anything from a few days to several months.

since then I have been unable to get any fitness back at all.

Regarding that bit, I remember the thread. Sad to hear you are still having problems. Maybe look at this as an opportunity to start with a clean slate. Have the surgery, rest/heal, then a cautious return to the bike.

A lot will depend on you and how you approach things but in the case of a hip replacement then it will also be down to the regimen that the surgeon follows. In my case it was: Monday dinner time head to hospital, mid afternoon have the op; on to ward by tea time; overnight trying to sleep; Tuesday AM physio had me walking around the ward on crutches; Tuesday afternoon, physio had me walking up and down stairs with crutches; surgeon said I could go home; Tuesday tea time I was at home. I was 54 when I had mine done.

Hip replacement is (IMO) much more straightforward to recover from than abdominal surgery as the incision goes with the alignment of muscle fibres and is a bit like pulling curtains apart and letting them pull back together whereas going through the abdominal wall will involve cutting across at least once set of muscles which then have to knit back together.

As you’ll know it takes a few days for the anaesthetic to get out of the body and you’ll suddenly feel knackered “for no apparent reason” and want to have a sleep. Once that phase has passed then I was told do as much as you want without breaking our rules (mainly things like not bending the hip past 90deg or crossing legs) and stopping if things get painful. I was walking a couple of miles within two to three weeks. I would have been on the turbo early on but my wife made me wait until the 6 week appointment and the go-ahead from the surgeon.

Basically your body will decide things for you – as an example, my fingernails didn’t grow for several weeks as my body was using all the energy it could to repair itself.

Good luck!

When I couldn’t exercise much from Xmas 2013 to ~June 2014 after my RTA and consequent maxilla and metacarpal surgery, my moderate fitness levels dropped through the floor. While my job is moderately physical (postie), the job and cycle commuting spring to autumn only improved my fitness at a very slow pace, my weight plateaued at ~90Kg (~7Kg over my pre-RTA typical weight).

Tackling my excessive weight during the second half of 2016 helped, losing ~10Kg, but it was the intensive recreational cycling I began in January that has improved my fitness massively and also helped me drop to ~74Kg.

I’ve gone from rides like http://www.strava.com/activities/858401134 (after just received my Polar H7 HRM) to my ride yesterday http://www.strava.com/activities/1138615927

Besides my suspected “piriformis syndrome” niggle that began a few weeks ago, I’m almost certainly in my best physical shape since the mid 1990s, back when I was a ~20 year old whippersnapper.

Tony, YGM

Dare I suggest being careful with food intake whilst you recover? It won’t help fitness as such but it will help keep you a shape you’re happy with and also means when you do start exercising you’re not having to gain fitness and drop weight at the same time.

cheers for that Bob.

does surgery take that much of a toll on the body?

Hang on, I’ll ask the Mrs……………………………., She says yes.

Tony, just accept the fact your’e a diesel engine with a few miles on the clock. Steady away, reliable, & can chug along all day. 😉

your’e a diesel engine with a few miles on the clock

about 12 years ago, on a trip to the alps, the guide who we hired noted to the lads, whilst they waited for me at the top of a hill, ‘big tony, he is like a big diesel, chug chug all day long’.
😆

Don’t follow too strict diet while recovering from surgery, it is mentally hard anyway. Just bit of moderation in portion size might be enough.
I think I could have bounced relatively easily from one of my surgeries between 2010 and 2012 but there were three and I haven’t reached pre-op fitness level since.

Yeah, it’s harder than I thought!!

Rachel

Essel,did your friend ever move on from his Marin Quake?Think it was you who mentioned it.I love the look of those bikes and always wondered how they peddled.