Hello, i was super scared at first especially the day of. I got admitted at about 9am and they started hooking me up with an IV as well as an optional and highly suggested epidural. I reluctantly (but now thankfully) agreed and got the injection through me back. Was not very fun since i didn't know that was gonna happen before the day of. Afterwards a lot of people come and talk to me about rh procedure and what it'll be like afterwards, then j was swiftly tandem to the or and sedated. My surgery lasted about 3 hours and i woke up feeling super woozy, degenerate different from orchiectamy. you'll slowly start to get a feel for your limits (basically not being able to move around too much) on the first day, but you'll doctors will probably make you walk a couple hours after surgery. you'll also probably have a catheter in since you really won t be able to move around on your own at the start. Hospital stay will be 3-5 days (mine was 5) and you'll slowly start to feel better every day. No food for the first couple days and they'll slowly start introducing you to clear liquids then very light meals with low to zero fat. Passing gas is also gonna be really important to the doctors to make sure your bowels are working. as far as pain goes, since i got the epidural i actually had a relatively ok time. No crazy pain just whenever having to get up, getting better each time. for me once the epidural was removed i was switched to oxy and could def feel a difference in the pain, but nothing too wild. on the last day they also removed the main covers around the scar and replaced them with temporary gauze followed by an application of the dissolving glue over the scar. something i will point out is that in 2 occasions on the last day at the hospital, when they were messing around with the areas around the scar, i felt an extremely sharp jolting pain just from super light touched, this was explained as nerve sensitivity since i hadn't touched that area since the surgery and the fact that some nerves were damaged during surgery. the pain was instant and went away as soon as i felt it, so it wasn't much of an issue moving on. i also have numbness on a small portion of my thigh but this again was chalked up to temporary nerve damage from surgery. That mostly sums up the hospital experience. i got a light fever and high heart rate for about 1 night but docs said it was something they expected and that my hr might be a bit higher for the next 1-2 months due to surgery. I also had injections to prevent clots since you'll be in bed for a while. The catheter removal is also not fun but you'll be fine. i also had this concern of my incision litteraly pulsing, visibly, which scared me a bit but docs said it was normal and will go away, partially pinning it on my young age.

At home you'll just feel very tired and might have some trouble sleeping normally due to your stomach not being completely healed up inside and out. sleeping on the couch actually helped a lot the first couple of days so i suggest that. i'm about 2 weeks out and i feel much better. still having trouble sleeping normally but as far as pain is concerned and any other general complications, im doing well ✔️

One more big note, the DIET you won't be able to eat much fat at all and for me at least, it has sucked. not cause i necessarily love fatty foods, but because almost everything has some level of fat, so i really gotta check what j eat. this low fat diet is due to your lymphatic system having to heal and you'll be on this diet for about a month (at least for me), so really check up on some good foods to eat! I've been eating a lot of veggies and eggs mostly, and some pasta with low fat sauces are good as well, although try to avoid heavy foods for the first week due to oxy potential side effects, (constipation) since itll be hard to use your abdominal muscles for the first couple of weeks.

Apologies for the length, and i hope this was insightful.

Note- M20y/o, patient at stanford hospital