Recovering From Surgery: Your Questions Answered

Recovery from surgery is a journey that's both deeply personal and remarkably universal. Whether you've just had a minor outpatient procedure or major surgery requiring a hospital stay, the days and weeks that follow often bring a mix of relief, discomfort and questions.

If you're reading this while recovering yourself, or supporting someone who is, know that what you're experiencing—and wondering about—is completely normal.

General surgeons at Franciscan Physician Network answer common questions people ask on Reddit about recovering from surgery. This guide addresses the most common questions and concerns that arise during surgical recovery.

Remember, every person's recovery is unique, and this information is meant to complement—not replace—the specific guidance from your surgical team.

Why Do I Feel Tired After Surgery?   

“The surgery is really a planned injury to allow you to heal in a better state,” said Joshua Kays, MD, a Franciscan Health general surgeon and surgical oncologist in Indianapolis and Mooresville. “One of the things that happens is your body is going to divert a lot of energy that you would use for other tasks towards the healing process. That's one of the main reasons that people feel worn down, tired or a lack of energy after surgery.”  

The type of procedure you had can affect how long it takes your body to recover from the surgery.

“If it's something very simple like having something excised off your skin, it could be a day or two,” Dr. Kays said. “If it's a major abdominal operation where you're having bowel resected or major hernia reconstruction, it can take a few weeks, even a month or two.

“You should be monitoring how are your levels doing. If they're not getting better, that's a concern. If they're just slowly getting better, but you do feel progress, it may just be that you're taking a little longer to heal than we expected.”

Why Is My Skin Itchy Around My Incision?   

“There could be a number of reasons why your skin's itchy,” Dr. Kays said. “One of the things we do, especially for males, is shave them. So as the hair grows back, that can be very itchy. Another thing that's done during surgery is you get a sterilization prep of your skin. Some people actually will react to that. So it could be a reaction either to the skin preparation or the adhesives that we put on the skin over the incision after surgery. Or it could just be the fact that we do cut some nerves, even if they're small ones going through the skin. And sometimes, as those nerves heal and start to fire again, it gives an itchy or even a tingling sensation.”

How Can I Minimize Scarring After Surgery?

“Following the wound care instructions by your surgeon is probably the best thing you can do,” Dr. Kays said. “We know things like smoking, nicotine use, inhibit healing, so that's going to lead to more complications with scarring and healing.

“And also just nutrition. Nutrition is extremely important not only for healing inside or the site of surgery, but also the skin. So eating good, healthy, nutritious meals so that your body has those nutrients to heal is probably the biggest thing.”

Why Do I Have Constipation After Surgery?

“Constipation can happen for numerous reasons after surgery,” Dr. Kays said. “Pain medication does cause constipation. So I recommend anybody who's taken prescription pain medication or narcotic pain medication take a stool softener or take some kind of gentle laxative like a MiraLax or some Coase to just help keep your bowels moving.”

Why Am I Having Gas Pains After My Surgery?

“Gas pains are very common after all surgical operations,” Dr. Kays said. “They can be present for a couple of reasons. One, it could be because it's actually gas within your bowel that's just not moving along. “

Gas pains may also be a result of carbon dioxide used to expand the abdomen during a laparoscopic or robotic surgery.

“We try our best to get all of it out after surgery, but unfortunately, sometimes little pockets get stuck, and that can actually cause quite a bit of discomfort,” Dr. Kays said. “The good news is it's carbon dioxide, so your body will absorb it, and you'll breathe it out usually within about 24 hours.”

At times, that gas pain can feel like it’s in the shoulder. Dr. Kays explained why:

“If it gets trapped in there and you stand up, the air is going to rise up and irritate the diaphragm,” he said. “Now the interesting thing about the human body is the same nerves that go to your shoulder, go down to your diaphragm branches, go each way. And we don't necessarily think we should be having pain inside our body. So it's kind of like our wires get crossed and our body interprets it as shoulder pain, but it's actually gas irritation on the diaphragm.”

While medication may help relieve discomfort from gas pains, Dr. Kays also advocates gentle walking or movement.

“One of the best things you can do is walk, get up and move around,” he said. “We have a saying, ‘The gut likes to be as active as we are.’ So if you lay around all day and do nothing, the gut's kind of going to sit there, get up, move around. It can help move that gas through.”

Why Are There Minimal Narcotics Given After Surgery?

“We know there's side effects of narcotic pain medication,” Dr. Kays said. “ We've also learned that using higher doses of things like Tylenol, ibuprofen can actually be very beneficial and give you a near narcotic-like response. Moreover though, we've learned that not every kind of pain is the same and they don't all respond to the same medications. So what we commonly do is we'll give you Tylenol, we'll give you ibuprofen, we'll give you things like gabapentin or also called Neurontin for nerve pain. We'll give you different types of medication that act on different types of pain. And typically with the combination of those, you can get off narcotics very quickly.”

Should I Change My Diet After Surgery?

If you’ve had gastrointestinal surgery or bariatric surgery, your diet may change after.

“We want the part of the intestine that we worked on to be allowed to heal,” Dr. Kays said. “We might put you on a soft diet or a liquid diet if you've had stomach surgery because we don't want big meals. We don't want the stomach to work hard.”

Regardless of the type of surgery you have, nutrition can have a positive impact on your healing.

“But even then, really focusing on healthy diets, I say after your healing protein is one of your best friends, even if you're taking supplemental protein, I like to think of them as the building blocks of the body. So if you don't have them, you can't heal. And we know going back to the tired and fatigue question, your body's churning through a lot of your energy and the protein that you've already had.”

Is Activity OK After Surgery?

“You want to get active and walking around early, so you don't want to come back from surgery and sit around for a week,” said Jessica Blandford, MD, a board-certified general surgeon at Franciscan Health hospitals in Munster and Dyer. “That increases risks of developing a deep vein thrombosis, and it also decreases your healing by getting up, moving early. It shows good improvement in healing and kind of overall pain postoperatively.”

But that activity comes with a caveat.

“One of the most important things is you want to follow any of your postoperative direction,” Dr. Blandford said. “So if you've had a hernia repair, you don't want to do any kind of heavy lifting in that timeframe given because it decreases the risk of any kind of recurrence of the hernia.”

Why Do I Feel Like I’ve Had A Setback After Surgery?

The human body's ability to heal is remarkable, but the recovery process rarely follows a straight line. One day you might feel like you're making great progress, and the next you might feel discouraged by pain, fatigue or unexpected complications like constipation or difficulty sleeping.

“Everybody's journey is going to be different,” Dr. Kays said. “We all know people who have had surgery and it seems like two or three days later, they're back to their normal selves. They're living life like nothing happened. But I'll tell you, most of the patients I actually treat don't recover that fast. They kind of have their ups and downs. It doesn't happen in a day or two. It's usually over the course of a couple of weeks, but eventually they all get back to their baseline. So it's just being patient, not getting frustrated and listening to your body. If you're tired, take a nap. If you're feeling well, get up and move. Just kind of listen to your body and as long as you're within the restrictions the surgeon's set, you should live life.”

When Should I Call My Surgeon?

When in doubt, always reach out to your healthcare providers. They know your particular situation best and want to support you through a successful recovery.

“There are times patients still have questions, so I do want my patients to call anytime,” said Jovenel Cherenfant, MD, general surgeon at Franciscan Health Munster. “When I say anytime, I mean: If it crosses your mind and you think it's important and the question’s is not answered in the pamphlet that we give you or in our pre-visit, then just call.”

“I like to tell them that no question is too silly,” Dr. Blandford added. “We have the staff in the clinic that can answer questions as well as forward anything to us. MyChart is a great way to reach out to us and ask us any questions. I'd rather them ask me questions than end up in the hospital in a dire situation. So fevers, chills if they have any discharge from their incision line, if they're having increased pain. Those would all be good reasons to reach out.”