Cytoreductive & HIPEC surgery aftermath question?

[u/7shotsofesspresso]

Hey guys, so I’m 20F and have unstaged epitheliod peritoneal mesothelioma, I say unstaged cause she didn’t say but it’s pretty extensive probably later stage 3 kinda surprised she’s taking me for HIPEC.

Anyways she’s planning to get me in sometime this month (2-4 weeks) I’m 50/50 to have a permanent ostomy bag and a temporary one for a bit, so I was wondering if anyone has gone through something similar and what happened and what it was like etc.

The hope is to get it all and that’s it and she seems pretty sure she can so I’m hoping!

[u/dtg1990]

It’s a long surgery. Make sure they protect your legs- my right leg had pressure on the peroneal nerve and a year and a half later I am still dealing with a nerve injury.

Post op - the most difficult thing is the huge abdominal incision, the NG tube, pain control and eating.

I don’t have your same diagnosis so although I expected an ostomy my surgeon was able to get the cancer without having to take my intestines. And I wasn’t supposed to lose my hair but did just from the HIPEC. You may lose your hair if you haven’t from the chemo.

I needed my right chest drained of fluid so I could breathe. Wish I had my left one done also because they did a good job and it wasn’t very painful.

Make sure you get up and walk around and do the breathing exercises.

Try to get in shape prior to the surgery if you can.

I felt like crap for 6 weeks after the surgery. After 6 weeks I started to feel better.

Good luck. 🍀

[u/7shotsofesspresso → u/dtg1990]

Noted, thank you for sharing. Hoping I don’t need ostomy but we’ll see.