Recovery time after Kidney removal

Hi

I wanted to know from people that have had a kidney removed how long they were in hospital and how long they were off work for, I am an office working but would have to drive 7 miles to and from work but no heavy lifting involved.

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  • Hi Archer.  I guess everybody will tell you that your results may vary.  I can only relate my experience.  In September 2012, I had my left kidney removed because of a 8cm tumour.  I had the operation on Monday morning and left hospital on Friday morning of the same week.  I was zonked out all through Monday night, on Tuesday morning the nurses got me out of bed for a wash and to sit in a chair (I felt OK)  On Wednesday morning it was too painful to get out of bed and I thought I'd had a major relapse but on Wednesday afternoon I felt great and was out of bed and walking around!  On Thursday I felt almost back to normal with only slight pain around the wounds.  On Friday I went home using the hospital patient transport service.  Once at home I followed the discharge instructions very carefully with no driving and no lifting for 4 weeks (by 3 weeks I felt I could do much more, but I limited my activities as a precaution).  With a job involving driving and sitting, I guess I could have returned to work about 6 weeks after the operation (luckily I am retired and so do not need to return to work).  Some points of interest: (1) my surgery was laparoscopic - open surgery would need a longer recovery; (2) another guy in the same ward as me seemed to recover much quicker than me (but life's not a race!); (3) Try to get some support from a physiotherapist before leaving hospital (to find best way to get in/out of bed, exercises to help stomach muscles recover etc).  Hope this helps, Good luck

  • Tomcat, how are you feeling now?

  • I just wanted to pop by to say hello to you Tails and let you know that you may not receive a reply from Tomcat as this discussion was created back in 2013.

    I hope they do though, but if not it may be worth trying to chat to others on more recent discussions.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

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