You can sleep in any position that is comfortable. Some patients need to sleep sitting in an upright position at first. It may be painful to sleep on your side, but it will not hurt your heart or incisions.
Recovering from lung surgery generally takes most people anywhere from a few weeks to 3 months. Before you leave hospital, you'll be given detailed instructions for exercise, medications, follow up appointments, ongoing wound care and resuming normal activities.
You may be told not to lift or carry anything heavier than 10 pounds, or 4.5 kilograms (about a gallon, or 4 liters of milk), for 2 weeks after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and 6 to 8 weeks after open surgery. You may walk 2 or 3 times a day. Start with short distances and slowly increase how far you walk.
Abstract. Cough is a common complication following pulmonary resection. Persistent and severe cough after pulmonary resection can cause significant impairments in quality of life among postoperative patients. Complications of cough can be life-threatening.
A: You may shower 48 hours after your chest tube is taken out. At this time you may take off your large bandage prior to showering and replace it with a Band-Aid® after showering. We ask that you delay taking a bath for one to two weeks.
You may spend time in the intensive care unit (ICU) after either surgery. During your hospital stay, you will: Be asked to sit on the side of the bed and walk as soon as possible after surgery. Have tube(s) coming out of the side of your chest to drain fluids and air.
If breathing and coughing are too painful after your surgery, try folding a pillow and squeezing it over the site of your incision to lessen the pain. Remember to cough after each exercise session to clear the mucus from your lungs.
Your doctor will tell you when you can start driving again but it is usually about 4 to 6 weeks after surgery. It might be sooner than this after keyhole surgery. Some insurance companies also specify that you shouldn't drive for a certain amount of time after chest surgery.
Surgery for lung cancer is a major operation and can have serious side effects, which is why it isn't a good idea for everyone. While all surgeries carry some risks, these depend to some degree on the extent of the surgery and the person's overall health.
While many people regard lung cancer surgery as a means to "cut out the cancer," one of the primary aims of the surgery is to restore or improve the quality of life. And, despite what some may think, people can live normal, active lives even when part or all of a lung is removed.
Lung surgery is typically a major operation that involves general anesthesia and several weeks of recovery, although minimally invasive options exist that can shorten recovery time.
The surgeon cuts some muscle and spreads the ribs apart. He or she surgically removes the affected lung. The sac that contained the lung (pleural space) fills up with air. Eventually, fluid takes the place of this air.
Chest tube removal is considered a painful and debilitating experience for all patients (7). However, there are no standard procedures or guidelines to manage CTR-related pain (17).
GI disturbances such as swelling, and stomach discomfort that can lead to bloating are common after surgery in the recovery period. They generally peak in about 2 days after surgery. They are temporary and resolve by about two months.
The pain is from damage to nerves during the operation. The pain often runs along the operation scar. For most people it gradually reduces over a couple of years as the nerves repair themselves. But for some people it may continue for longer.
Normal recovery time
Expect to stay in the hospital for 2 to 7 days after lung cancer surgery. The hospital stay for open surgery is longer than it is for VATS. Lung cancer surgery is a big operation. Once you're home from the hospital, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months for you to fully recover.
Some patients have shortness of breath that goes away a week after surgery; others might have shortness of breath that goes away a few weeks after surgery. And there isn't really significant internal pain after the procedure.
Postoperative cough has been hypothesized to be related to pulmonary C-fiber activation, extraction of the vagus nerve, acid regurgitation, endobronchial sutures and mediastinal lymph node resection as well as other anatomical reasons (3,8-11).
Cough and Sneeze Carefully
It turns out that if you have an abdominal incision, you can do some serious harm to your incision if you cough or sneeze the wrong way. A new incision isn't very strong and a violent sneeze can actually cause a surgical incision to open.
Once the anesthesia is administered, your surgical team will place a breathing tube in your windpipe to help you breathe during the surgery. Your surgeon will make an incision on your side between your ribs to reach the lungs.
You should be able to wash normally after your stitches, dressings and clips have been removed. It's usually better to have a shower until the wound has healed to avoid soaking it completely. Afterwards, pat your wound and the area around it dry.
Depending on your surgical wound, coughing may be painful and not powerful enough to clear the phlegm properly. Some people get a dry but persistent cough after an anaesthetic. This is common and does not mean you are getting a chest infection. It normally lasts only a day or two.