One month follow up March 5th

I will be at Humber on Wednesday for my 1 month appt with dietician and 2 hour class. Anyone else going to be there? 

What happens at the classes? My husband will be taking me, not sure if he is able to sit in on the class or not. He may just opt to stay in the truck as he works midnights the night before/night of. 

Kim

I had mine last month. I'm sure your husband can sit in if he likes - they just review a power point slide show about nutrition and supplements etc.

My one frustration with the class was that the dietician who ran the class was very adamant about exercise - pretty much limited us to walking for up to 6 months!! I challenged her on it, but she insisted that we not do anything that engages your core, or requires balance, as our insides are still healing.

I felt well enough to do more - but didn't want to go against the rules.. I mentioned my frustration to Dr. Klein when I saw him the following week, and he was shocked that we were told that in our session. He told me that at 5 weeks I have no restrictions in terms of exercise and can do what I want. Just listen to my body - it will tell me if I'm doing too much. I now to 45 minutes cardio and 20 minutes weight training and feel just fine. We are all different, so do what your centre tells you to do, but question what doesn't seem right to you.

Susan

Thank you for the response :-)

That is crazy about the 6 months. So happy to hear your doing an amazing workout. I'm going to start on the treadmill here at home this week. Then go from there. Do you do the routine daily?

Kim

I would think that as long as you are smart about avoiding any straining, you should be fine.

If we would tear up our insides just by exercising, no one would go into bodybuilding :)

I would go for walking, non-strenuous swimming, stationary bike. That will be quite enough to get you started, especially if you haven't exercised in a while.

from Google -

Many people wonder why we limit activity after abdominal surgery. One simple answer is that significant exertion of the core muscles of the abdomen will cause pain early after surgery. Secondly, whether open surgery or laparoscopic surgery, every surgeon needs to close the innermost musculofascial layer of the abdominal wall with suture at the end of the operation. We limit everyone’s activity after surgery so that this closure can heal. If the area is not allowed to heal then an abdominal hernia can develop which may require more surgery in the future to repair.

If you are having a laparoscopic surgery, the size of the incision is small and will heal quickly. I usually restrict my patients to no lifting over 20 pounds for two to three weeks, depending on the surgery. I recommend avoiding any activity that causes straining, such as pushing, pulling and jumping. Avoid straining with bowel movements by eating a high fiber diet or taking stool softeners to avoid constipation. There are usually no further restrictions.

The surgeons must have spoken to them as mine was this month and we were told any questions about exercise, ask your surgeon. I do know that they are stricter about swimming.  I'm going to ask Dr Hagen about it when I see him next week

I agree 6 months seems long. I could work out after six weeks. Did I? No, but I was walking. 

Annette 👍