What to Expect After Surgery for Ovarian Cancer
If you have abdominal surgery for ovarian cancer, you’ll be in the hospital for about 3 to 7 days. You may have to stay away from your usual activities for up to 4 weeks. Your recovery time is likely to be less if you have laparoscopic surgery. Here’s an overview of how you might feel after surgery.
- For the first few days, you’re likely to have pain from the incisions. Your pain can be controlled with medicine. You may have an epidural catheter inserted into your lower back. That will make it easier to give you pain medication. Or you may have a patient-controlled analgesia pump. This is an intravenous form of pain medication that you control by pressing a button. The pump is removed before you leave the hospital. Talk with your doctor or nurse about your options for pain relief. Some people are hesitant to take pain medication. But doing so can actually help your healing. If you don’t control pain well, for example, you may not want to cough or turn over often. You need to do those things as you recover from surgery.
- You may have a nasogastric tube. This flexible tube goes through your nose to your stomach. It empties the stomach so your intestines can relax.
- You may have a small drain in your lower abdomen. This will likely be removed before you leave the hospital.
- You may feel tired or weak for a while. The amount of time it takes to recover is different for each woman.
- You may have constipation from using narcotic painkillers. It can also be caused by not moving much or not eating much. Talk with your doctor or nurse about how to keep your bowels moving.