I am on day 5 of recovery and still in so much pain. I’m due back to work tomorrow but am not sure I can take it! I can get around okay but nights and mornings are very very hard. Anyone have this experience? How long did it last?

It is mainly pain in my stomach/incision area and it is so difficult to swallow anything.

You are very much in the early stages, so please be patient. I know it's easy to say as I'm 9 weeks post Op today, but trust me you will recover.

I'm lucky I work from home and I still feel very fatigued if I don't nourish myself properly, or maybe have a glass of wine too many.

With swallowing, I mixed 50/50 apple juice and water and sip sip sipped throughout the day. You can make a thin smoothie with low fat high protein milk, and maybe some less sweet protein powder or even a bit of fruit, add a smidge of honey for sweetness and sip sip sip all day.

You have had major surgery, perhaps you need to take another week off work to put some more nutrition slowly into your body.

Take care x

I’m 12 days post op and there’s no way I could have gone back to work after a week. It took me until about day 7 to stop needing pain relief and about 9 to be able to move around without getting really light headed.

Good luck and I hope you have started to feel much better