So they took out a third of my colon – recovering from colon surgery

Visit from baby granddaughter Noemi speeds up recovery

Back in October I wrote that I was to undergo surgery to remove a third of my colon due a mass discovered through a combination of the Cologuard test and a follow up colonoscopy.

We delayed that surgery due to an already scheduled trip to Italy.

Well, the day arrived on Tuesday December 16th, and I now have a full ten days of recovery under my belt.

With that in mind, I thought I’d write about my experience and what I have planned ahead.

Quite frankly, I did not expect my recovery to go as well as it has, especially after I woke up from surgery.

Man, you want to talk about feeling like hell.  If you’ve had any type of surgery involving removal of an internal organ, you know what I am talking about.

Anyhow, I woke up with six incisions in my abdomen, mainly on the left side, and down to a large incision a couple inches below the belly button.

Fortunately, I did not wake up with a colostomy bag.  I knew there was only a small risk of that occurrence, but that was a huge relief.

As I was waking up, I had considerable pain, but this was alleviated a bit by seeing the beautiful faces of my wife and youngest daughter.

I was kept in recovery until later in the evening, when I was finally shipped to my room in the acute care ward.

My first meal was delivered in the morning… apple juice, broth, Italian ice, tea and jello.

I had no appetite but managed to eat a little bit.  The anesthesia was keeping me in a state of nausea up to that point.

At some point Wednesday morning, a nurse brought in a device to exercise my lungs to help with the recovery.

You had to put your mouth around a protuding tube and slowly breathe in and try and keep the little ball in the device between two numbers before you exhale.

My initial effort hurt like hell, but I knew this would not be a problem later on.

As part of my kung fu training years ago, I learned some deep breathing exercises that I’ve continued to incorporate periodically into my fitness program.

Over the next couple days, I continued to practice and improved fairly quickly.  So much so that my nurse was quite surprised when I demonstrated for her Thursday evening.

My wife arrived about noon on Wednesday, and I finally took my first stroll around the ward.

When we got back to the room, I was feeling pretty shitty, and needed some pain relief, which came in the form of Dilautid injected into the IV.

The next few meals continued with the liquid diet to allow the colon to heal.

For the first couple days, my digestive system was clearly not happy.  I won’t go into detail, but it’s definitely not a fun experience.

Eventually, on Wednesday evening I believe, I had my first solid meal.

I ordered grilled chicken, rice and ginger ale.  For a couple meals I simply had a bagel and some apple juice.

By Thursday morning I was feeling much better.  I no longer needed the Dilaudid, but they continued to provide me with pain relief in the form of Celebrex.

That morning, a physical therapist came in to run me through some tests.  I had to walk up and down a few steps a couple of times (couldn’t go further since I was attached to the IV still).  That went fine.

Back in the room, she ran me through a few more tests and passed me with flying colors… good news!

By Thursday evening, I was itching to get out of the hospital, and my doctor suggested that I would likely be released Friday morning.

However, there was a modest bump in the road ahead.

Every few hours while in the hospital a nurse would come in to give me some medication, and or a shot.

The shot was usually heparin to prevent any significant clotting in the colon.

On Friday morning at about 4:30 am, the nurse gave me a shot and a couple pills.

An hour later, my heart was absolutely racing, and this went on for an hour until it settled down, but it then settled into a bit of an irregular heartbeat.

The nurses checked on me, and my heart rate at one point was 163 beats per minute.  Once that settled down, my blood pressure dropped to 93/59.

As a result, my doctor ordered blood work to be sure my hemaglobin levels were fine.  If not, then I would not be released.

Fortunately, the numbers came back in order, and he put in the release order.

At noon on Friday the 19th I was released, and I’ve been home since.

Since then, I have only taken a couple Tylenol as my stomach aching the other day.  That is all the pain meds I’ve taken since I’ve been home.

As it turns out, the stomachache was more related to an impending BM, lol.

They did prescribe me Oxycodone, but I never bothered to pick it up.  Yes, the belly ached, but not to that level.  The migraines I’ve dealt with my entire life are far worse.

Each day my energy level has improved.  The cold weather has kept me indoors, but I have been up and moving like normal.

I did get out and drive a few days ago, and that was fine.  The concern was that I’d need to be off any major medications before I could drive.

On the day of surgery, after completing the bowel prep similar to when you get a colonoscopy, I weighed in at 182.5 pounds.

Since then, my weight has held steady between 177 and 180 pounds.  That’s a level I haven’t experienced since my mid-20s.

I actually now feel underweight, and I am itching to get back into my garage gym.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get back to my normal weightlifting program until at least mid-February so that everything can heal.

I am hoping I can start doing some light dumbbell work and perhaps use some resistance bands soon.

The key is to avoid engaging the core muscles, since they’ve been sliced up a bit.

Thoughts about my recovery

Quite honestly, I did not think I would feel this well at this point after surgery.

I was amazed at how much energy I had on Friday, just 72 hours after surgery.

I truly believe this is due to my fitness program, which revolves around strength training.

“The stronger you are, the harder you are to kill.”  Mark Rippetoe, Starting Strength

I truly believe this.

Strength training involves doing hard things, and I believe this helps your mind and body prepare to experience other hard things, such as having a third of your colon removed.

Was I super fit ahead of surgery?  Far from it… I really don’t like cardio, and I like to eat some junk.

However, I was in decent shape.

While I was not at my peak numbers throughout most of 2025, in early October I had deadlifted 305 for a set of 5 reps, and in late October I had squatted 250 for a set of 5 reps.

Thus, my legs, hips and back were in good shape and strong.

My training was sporadic in November and early December.

This was due to our Italy trip, but also because I was a little bit depressed due to the upcoming surgery, and the fact that I knew I couldn’t train for a couple months afterward.

I got in a few workouts in that last week though and felt good going in.  Mentally, I was as ready as ever to get this over with.

With all that said, I think it would be much more difficult to go through this type of surgery for someone who is carrying significant weight around the abdomen, and who does no training.

The incisions would need to go much deeper, and with no core and leg strength, it would be more difficult to get moving normally again.

Looking ahead

As mentioned, I won’t get to start training the big compound movements (squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press and pullups) until at least mid-February.

Because my arms and legs look so damn skinny right now, my approach will be a little bit different, as my focus will be more on adding muscle rather than just strength.

Yes, there is obvious overlap between the two approaches, but I have found that I need to train a bit differently to add more muscle to the arms and legs.

With that in mind, the goal for 2026 will be to add 10 to 15 pounds of muscle without adding too much fat.

I would love to be a solid 195 pounds and strong.

I also like to be in good condition as well, so there will be some cardio training involved.

What about YOU and 2026?

If you’ve been thinking about losing weight, getting into shape, getting stronger, etc., but have not started any legitimate program, get to it!

I have a couple offerings you may want to consider… my Optimal Fitness 50 program or my consulting options.

If there is one lesson I have had to learn through this process is that you can’t take your health for granted.

No matter how well you eat or what kind of shape you may be in, you still don’t have complete control over your health.

Life will find a way to throw you a curveball, so all you can do is control what you can.

If I may be of service, I look forward to working with you.  If not, I will wish you all the best for a healthy and prosperous 2026!