Exercise after surgery

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1

Hi all, I was diagnosed with ectopic on 1st Jan and had a laparoscopic salpingectomy on 5th Jan to remove right tube.

Caught before rupture etc so all pretty straightforward. I haven’t been given post op instructions for some reason. I wondered if any of you who had the surgery remember when you were cleared for exercise?

We have a ski trip booked that will start exactly 3 weeks after the surgery. I wondered if my internal healing will be finished by then? Obviously I will cancel it if needed but I was really looking forward to it and it would help emotionally to be still able to do it.

Thanks for your help :slight_smile:

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Dear Rose,

I am so sorry to hear of your ectopic pregnancy loss,

These are guidelines but we advise if you had keyhole surgery, you could start gentle exercise within two weeks of the operation. If you had open surgery then you should wait six weeks for your abdomen to heal.

It is completely individual. Whilst I am not a skier at all, I can imagine this sport has quite an impact on your abdomen and core, so you may want to take things very gently.

We have more information on physical recovery on our website which I have copied here -

https://ectopic.org.uk/physical-recover … activities

Sending much love,

Karen x

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3

Hello ,

I had left tube removed in October I only just feel healed. Everyone is different though just see how you feel! Take is easy !

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Hi, I can tell you that after my surgery it took me two weeks to really move around with still a lot of discomfort, especially in my chest area because of the laparoscopy gas. At times I thought I was having a heart attack as well because of it.

I tried to go back to work after 3/4 weeks because I was losing it mentally and I thought I was fit to go back to work.

My first day back at work, I’m a nurse so it’s a physically demanding job, lots of standing and running around. Just doing my job for 30 min tired me out and caused me more pain because I was straining my muscles just from standing and walking. My boss sent me home the next day telling me I need clearance from the doc who did my surgery because I did not look well at all and couldn’t do my job properly.

I know skiing will be fun but your body will hurt quite extensively doing that activity. And your energy levels are very low right now because it’s using its energy to heal itself instead. Your uterus is still healing from the trauma and that pain and swelling doesn’t go down at least two months in. It took about 4 months for my bruises to look completely yellowed and even with the bruises gone it was still very tender to the touch, even after sex it hurt on my right side where my tube was removed.

I’ve come to realize that some women aren’t as affected by this type of trauma, but if this has been affecting you emotionally, I would say you can go to the skiing place but don’t actually go skiing. Go try and have a great time, get yourself out of your head for a little. But just try on the 3rd week if your feeling ok, to go in the car and see how those bumps feel because you will be driving to get to this skiing place and the bumps on the road killed me quiet a lot that first month. Test yourself out if you really really want to go. If you have limitations than stay home and rest as you should and let your body heal. It’s a short recovery that feels like forever.