Good idea, after my colon surgery, I went back to work 6 days later, and lifted around 40-50 lb tubs of meat off the floor. Now I didn’t get a hernia from it, but did cause a hematoma, that popped a leak when I was in Cuba 16 days after surgery. We had already booked the trip and I couldn’t get out of it with a medical emergency to get my money back, so we went.
Yeah it was a bit soon, I was rough, but I had screwed up my wifes and I previous down south vacation the year before when I was on way too much tren, so I toughed it out for her. I had swelling at the incision site, but it was slowly going down so I didn’t think anything of it. At the time I didn’t know it was a hematoma (pouch of blood between the muscle and the skin)
I’ll tell you the story, but you are right to take it easy.
My wife, grandson and I were out on a paddle boat, there was a bunch of fish, so I jumped in and swam with the fishes. Climbed back in on the ladder on the back (I guess the boat stick likely 24-30” out of the water. Then we went back in.
Well later that day, we decide to go back out on a paddle boat, water was really calm, crystal clear, my grandson asks me if I could dive down to the bottom. I wasn’t feeling perfect, but I’m a dumb ass and thought, I’ll try it.
So I jump in, try to get to the bottom, no way, it was too far down, and as I said, I wasn’t feeling perfect, this was likely 17 days after a colon resection. I went to climb back in and there was no fucking ladder. So I pondered about what I was going to do, my grandson was still small then, I think 6 or 7, so him and my wife tried to paddle back, but I was dead weight on the back and the current was too much for them, with me hanging off the back of the boat, so we got no where.
We were way out, no one would see us on the beach if we tried to signal for help, so I only had one option, pull myself with my arms back into the boat, dragging myself over the 6” incision in my abs. Well I did trying not to apply too much pressure on the area, but it still hurt a fair bit, kinda stung, but I put my life jacket back on and didn’t worry, it was a bit itchy. But didn’t feel damaged, there was only a tiny bit of blood, so I thought, take it easy dumbass and it will be fine. (There were not staples or stiches, they had used dissolving ones on the inside and surgical tape on the skin, which I didn’t need after a couple of weeks. They had fallen off before we went on holidays, the skin had healed as far a I could tell.
So we go back to our lounge chairs by the pool, I am shirtless, I stand up, go to get a beer and rub down on the area because it was a bit itchy and then a big squirt of very dark blood flies what felt like 8’ off my gut (I guess I had popped a tiny hole in a weak spot at the end of the incision) in a stream right in front of a couple guys. They freak out and ask if I’m ok.
To make the story short, I ended up going to a Medicenter in the main city by the resort, and got scolded by the doctor (who didn’t speak english that well, so yelled louder each time hoping I would understand) (ok say this in a female broken english spanish accent), “no lift” as she pretends she is lifting something, “NO LIFT!, NONE OF THIS!”
Now that medi center was an experience, my wife said the nurses and doctor looked like strip a gram girls, short tight skirts, all in white, tops unbottoned and boobs pushing out. Couple guys and come in, flirted, smacked them on the ass and left. It was the coolest and weirdest thing I had ever seen. It was all open to the air courtyard with trees and birds flying around and the rooms around it in a square, it was old, but spotless.
Ok to get back to it, she told me to put a cold compress on it a couple times a day and it would be fine. And it ended up being fine. But kinda freaked me out, the nurses at the hotel thought they would have to cut me open to clean it out. I thought, fuck I’ll have to go home after 2 days.
Anyhow that trip was rough, I survived and made the best of it as I could for them, but I should have maybe taken a couple more weeks to heal, but in my slightly brain damaged mind, thought, “I could just as easily heal on a beach, drinking a beer, as I could laying on the couch at home”.
So pretty much the moral to this story is, keep it light, let it heal, I could have caused more damage and got lucky.
