Hi all,

I am posting this in hopes that it will help anybody facing similar surgery.

My name is Marco and I recently underwent laprascopic colon resection due to a (suspected cancer) large growth in my sigmoid colon near the rectum. I've managed to get discharged from the hospital within 48 hours of surgery and my bowel movements are normal one week after surgery. I feel great, all things considered! That's why I wanted to share my personal tips. Some of these may help you. I hope so.

I started changing the way I do things as soon as I found out about the growth and knew that surgery was coming soon. My philosophy was that you have to prepare your body and mind for major surgery just like an athlete would prepare for a sporting event.

The first thing I did was adjust my diet. I made sure that I was eating as healthy as possible. Now, that means different things to different people - especially because it carries a price tag - but this is your life and worth investing into. I went largely organic and made sure that I got all the nutrients my body needed. At the same time, I switched to intermittent fasting (8 hrs eating, 16 hrs only water) and eventually to one meal a day to increase the fast time. Apparently, what this does is it allows your body to go into a cleansing state, called autophagy. I'm not going to go into the technical details because this was only a part of my preparation.

The second thing I did was address my physical preparation. Getting your abdomen sliced up is no fun, even with scope holes compared to large incisions (I had four scope holes and one incision of about 3 inches). So, I worked on my core in the 2-3 weeks leading up to surgery. Everybody is different and capable of a different anount of work, but here is what I did every day:

sit up routine. 30 crunchies, rest, 15 side bends, rest, 15 leg extentions (think of your body as a 'V', then straightening your legs), rest, 20 bicycle (elbows behind head, legs kicking like you're on a bike, elbows leaning in with extended leg. I did two sets of this and gradually increased the number as it became easier. Find your own limits.

Core routine. 25 pushups, into a 'prayer' stretch (on your knees, arms extend in front of you), into a 30 second plank (I did these resting on my forearms - there are other ways), into a cobra stretch, into a donkey-cat stretch (look these up as they are yoga stretches). Repeat for the second set. Again, increase as you get stronger. 

Your core will thank you for it when you find yourself largely immobile in the days after surgery.

I also took my dog for his usual 2 walks a day (for a total of about 90 minutes of walking) and did a bit extra exercise ie on the stationary bike, some squats and stretches. The legs will be doing most of the work so its good to have them in optimum shape - or as optimum as we're going to get.

The final aspect is the mental aspect. Again, everybody is different but I will tell you what worked for me. I looked up neuroplasticity exercises and found three fun exercises to do for about 5-10 minutes every day. I can provide details if anybody asks but one of the concepts is around allowing your mind to multi task. Expand your mind! LOL.

The next thing I did was I took a bath every day with healthy portions of magnesium (epsom salts or better yet dead sea salts) and baking soda. I listened to relaxing music.

On the final few days approaching surgery I did something I'd never really done before. I partook in a few meditations. Just found them on youtube. I figured it can't hurt, and wouldn't you know it - it helped. The main things I got out of meditation was to focus on my breathing and find my happy place. In my case it was an old memory of cuddling with my mom on the couch when I was a small boy and hearing her heartbeat. That was the last thing I thought about when they put me under. Your mom wants what's best for you :-)

There is one more thing I want to share. A song jumped into my mind on the morning of surgery. It was Elton John's Your Song. I'm not even a huge Elton John fan but that song just kept playing in my head as I got dressed, as my wife drove me to the hospital, and even as they wheeled me into the operating room. Then again after surgery, until I listened to it when I got home two days later and had a good old cry. I guess what I'm saying with this is listen to yourself. Deep down, you know what you need to keep you strong and when to release the emotions.

There is more, but I feel like I've written a novel already. I just really hope that this helps somebody as they face this scary surgery. Excuse any spelling mistakes as I wrote all this in one go :-)