After surgery
After your operation, you'll spend a few hours in a recovery room before you go back to the ward. You'll have a needle in your hand or arm that is connected to a drip. You'll also have a tube draining urine from your bladder (a catheter). The nurse will remove these as soon as you’re eating and drinking again. You may also have other tubes to drain fluid from the area that has been operated on.
Managing your diet
You'll be allowed to eat and drink soon after your return to the ward. Most people find that small portions of bland and low-fibre foods are easier to digest to begin with.
You'll start to eat small portions of low-fibre food soon after your operation. This will help you recover from the operation more quickly and get your bowel working again. You may have loose and runny poo (diarrhoea) for a while after your operation. Your healthcare team can give you medicines and exercises to help.
You can find more information about regaining bowel control after surgery in our health information booklet Regaining bowel control
Getting back on your feet
Your healthcare team will help you to get out of bed and start moving around as soon as possible. They will show you some leg and breathing exercises to help prevent chest infections. Compression stockings and injections to make your blood thinner will help to prevent blood clots.
Side effects
All treatments carry a possible risk of side effects. Your healthcare team should give you written information about the possible side effects. But they won't be able to tell you in advance which side effects you'll get or how long they will last.
Surgery can cause changes in how your bowel works. At your hospital appointments, your healthcare team will ask you about the side effects you're experiencing. You might want to keep a diary to help you remember the details.
Most side effects get better a few weeks after you finish treatment. But some people may have side effects that last longer (long-term effects) or they may get new side effects later on (late effects).
Possible long-term and late side effects of surgery include:
- Tiredness
- Hernia
- Bowel problems
- Sexual problems
- Bladder problems
- Infertility
Pain relief
Your nurse or doctor will give you medicines to relieve pain. For the first day after your surgery, you may have a PCA (patient controlled analgesia) pump. You can control this yourself by pressing a button when you need extra pain relief. Or you may have an injection in your back (epidural) to control pain. Tell your nurse if you are in pain as soon as possible so that they can change the type or dose of pain relief.
Stomas
If you have a stoma, your stoma care nurse will visit you on the ward. They'll show you how to look after your stoma and can give you advice on what food to eat.
Going home
You'll go home a few days after your operation. Your healthcare team will give you an appointment for an outpatient clinic before you leave hospital. You may want to take a list of questions to help you remember what you want to say. We have suggested some questions you might like to ask.
Page reviewed January 2025
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