Recovery after bowel resection (colectomy): week by week

The ranges below come from hospital leaflets and are typical, not promises. They differ between hospitals and between operations: removing a short segment by keyhole is not the same recovery as a total colectomy with a stoma, and complications can lengthen any stage. Whatever your surgeon or ward tells you overrides this page.

The operation itself is described in the linked procedure guide. This page covers only what follows, from waking up in recovery to the point where daily life feels like your own again.

Phases overlap, and the leaflets do not agree on every number, so where they differ both are shown.

You wake with fluids through a drip, often a catheter in the bladder, a drain near the wound and pain relief by epidural or a drip, as the Milton Keynes leaflets describe. A physiotherapist helps you out of bed the following day, and breathing exercises and elastic stockings are part of the plan. The Borders leaflet says the drain stays two to four days and the drip until bowel sounds return or you pass wind.

Eating restarts gradually, beginning with small, easily digested meals. Nourishing drinks and soups help while appetite is low. Wind passing is the sign the bowel is waking up, and the first bowel actions can be irregular. Pain should ease with each day of moving about, though the leaflets note that you will have good and not-so-good days.

The Borders leaflet says stitches or clips come out at 7 to 10 days, and a Milton Keynes leaflet says an open wound heals in 10 to 14 days. Keep the wound clean and dry as the ward instructs and let the district nurse or practice nurse check it if you are given a follow-up.

Rest during the day and expect to need it: Borders describes people resting two or three times a day for a month or more. Short, frequent walks are better than a few long ones. After keyhole surgery the same leaflet still asks for caution with heavy lifting. If you have a stoma, the stoma nurse will manage the bag and diet with you; Milton Keynes advises a four-week lifting limit in its subtotal colectomy leaflet.

• Eat small, regular meals and drink well.

• Increase walking a little each day rather than resting all day.

• Take painkillers as advised so that you can move and breathe deeply.

Borders suggests driving after about six to eight weeks, when you can do an emergency stop without wound discomfort, and Milton Keynes asks you to check your insurer and any effect of painkillers. GOV.UK says anyone unable to control a vehicle safely must not drive, and that insurance validity can be affected if you ignore medical advice.

Work depends on the job: the Borders leaflet gives within eight weeks for a light job and within twelve for a heavy one. Lifting is the main restriction: six weeks in the Milton Keynes sigmoid and right-hemicolectomy leaflets. Borders says sexual activity is possible within three to four weeks if comfortable.

The Borders leaflet says to expect a return to normal after about three months. Bowel habit can stay changed for a while, so keep a note of what is normal for you and mention it at follow-up. The tissue results are discussed at a clinic appointment, which may change what happens next.

The leaflets list wound discharge or leaking, a high temperature or shivering, burning or frequency passing urine, a cough with coloured phlegm, leg or chest pain, unusual abdominal pain, rectal bleeding and vomiting. Contact your GP or the ward for the first group. Severe abdominal pain with a swollen tummy, sudden breathlessness or chest pain need 999 or the emergency department; NHS 111 can advise when you are unsure.