When I was first told during a routine colonoscopy that one polyp looked a little suspicious, it never crossed my mind that it would end up requiring surgery. The week of waiting for the biopsy results felt impossibly long. When I finally heard the words "colon cancer," my mind went blank, but I breathed a small sigh of relief when they told me it was caught fairly early and could be handled laparoscopically. For whoever might be lying awake at night, searching the web because the same road lies ahead of them, I wanted to set down what I went through, plainly and honestly.
I was admitted the day before the operation. Honestly, the hardest part was not the surgery itself but the bowel prep. For those few days I lived on rice porridge, and from the evening before I had to keep gulping down this watery laxative solution. I lost count of how many times I ran to the bathroom. My stomach felt completely empty and all my energy drained away. But a clean bowel means a clean operation, so I gritted my teeth and got through it. On the morning of the surgery, I changed into the patient gown and was wheeled in on the bed, and I remember just staring blankly up at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling.
Because it was laparoscopic, they said they would only make a few small holes in the abdomen, and that is exactly what happened. You know how people who had open surgery in the old days have a long scar running across the belly? In my case, it was just a few marks of about a centimeter near the navel and on the side. When I woke from the anesthesia I was in the recovery room, and the pain was more bearable than I had expected. The one thing that lingered for a few days was a stiff shoulder and a tight, bloated feeling in my belly, probably from the gas they had pumped into the abdomen during the operation. They told me that works its way out over time.
The most important thing in recovery was "passing gas," in other words, breaking wind. It sounds funny, but it is the signal that the bowel has started moving again, so the nurse kept asking me every time, "Have you passed any gas yet?" From the day after surgery they had me start walking a little, so I gripped my IV pole and shuffled slowly up and down the corridor. At first my belly pulled tight and I was scared, but once I actually started walking I could feel things loosening up inside. Each time my meals were bumped up a level, from thin gruel to porridge and then to soft rice, I really felt that I was getting better.
I stayed in the hospital about a week and then went home. The length varies enormously from person to person, since everyone's recovery speed and situation are different, or so I was told. Even after discharge I was told not to lift heavy things for a while and to avoid spicy, irritating foods, and I am now having regular check-ups to keep an eye on how things are going. Looking back, the moment of the diagnosis was the scariest part by far; once I actually started taking it one step at a time, it was amazing how the human body recovers.
This is only my own experience, and even with the same diagnosis everyone's condition is different, so please be sure to discuss your treatment plan with your own medical team.