Hi all. I just had my appendix removed in an emergency surgery.  I am feeling somewhat better but I am so frustrated.  I am a runner (I run for my college) and now I cant run. Who knows when they will let me run again and when they do it will probably be so slow.  I am so upset and scared that I am going to lose all my muscle and endurance and strength. I worked so hard to get to where I was and now I am gonna have to work twenty times harder once I recover.

I am also scared about gaining weight. I am used to eating anything I want because I workout a lot and because I have a fast metabolism but now since all i can do it sit on my bottom and take walks (which are sooo frustrating to do for me) I feel like I am either going to gain weight or lose my muscle and be all jiggly.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone had surgery before and recovered. What was the recovery like and how long did it take for you to get back in shape.

I had 2 surgeries the summer before my university athletic career was supposed to begin. I understand your frustration. The best thing for you to do is talk to your doctor about what you are able to do. Most likely you shouldn't be elevating your heart rate, so no heavy lifting or high intensity. But that doesn't mean you have to be completely sedentary. Keep walking, and walk as much as you can. Do the little things like taking the stairs. And trust me, you'll have to work hear to recover from time off, we all do, but it won't be 20X harder, you've already built that mental tuffness.

Exact same thing happened to me in December! I don't know your stats but I'll tell you what I've been doing...

I lost weight in the hospital because I was so nauseous all the time, and basically lost most of the musle mass from my butt and legs, and ended up with nothing but skin and jiggle (eww...). I'm a swimmer and lifeguard so I can totally relate to how important strong legs are. Your doctor probably told you that your need to wait 6 weeks before you can lift anything; make sure you get the OK from your doctor before you start seriously working out/running again. Your abs are completely torn apart right now and you need to focus on letting your body heal.

Eating: I don't know if you're trying to lose, maintain or gain... I would suggest definitly don't try to lose right now. Your body is healing from the surgery and needs extra calories to do that, and since it was an emergency appendectomy I'm assuming that you had some kind of an infection (and are possibly on antibiotics). If you deprive your body of nutrients/calories you are just asking for the infection to come back or get worse, and you could become much more suseptible to other infections (viruses etc.) that will only slow down your healing. So, make sure you are always making at least maintenence calories.

I was put on a low res diet after my surgery so that my intestines wouldn't be irritated...if you haven't been told to do this, I highly recommend it (just google it or PM me). If you are on antibiotics then you should also make sure that you eat yogurt (if you can't have dairy they make soy yogurt). The antibiotics kill the bacteria in your intestines and this imbalance will likely lead to stomach upset, so replenishing your natural supply will help some.

Excersise: I started out 5 1/2 weeks after surgery doing light swimming (about 1 hour, but really really slowly and with an aid) and did light elliptical workouts at the gym (after getting the OK from my surgeon). I also highly recommend swimming or water aerobics as a first form of excersise. Both are great for after surgery since water supports your body (low impact) while also providing resistance and you can control the intesity level of the activity. Swimming is also great for your legs, and excersising in water actually keeps you heart rate lower than it would be out of water because of the pressure.

After the 6 weeks I signed up with a personal trainer so that she could show me exactly what to do to reach my fitness goals (getting my legs strong enough to go back to work) and also so that I could make sure that I wouldn't be hurting myself. If you are trying to regain muscle mass (or maintain it) you might actually need to increase you calories (I had to, but I'm also underweight :(...). The best excersises for me (for my legs and butt) were lunges and squats, which made my leg strength and appearance (goodbye jiggly!) dramatically.

It took me about 2 1/2 months to get back to my pre-surgery weight and fitness level, but it may be different for you depending on how much damage has been done to your body (mine was a lot). Yes, it was extremely hard, but the more I ate, the easier it was for me. After my first session with my personal trainer I couldn't walk for three days (not even joking) because my legs were so atrophied, and I had to work out consistently, mostly weights and strength training, at least 4-5 days a week otherwise my body regressed.

So to answer your questions, don't be scared to gain weight, as long as you aren't excessivly overeating I doubt you will/can. Start with really light excersise when you are allowed to and don't take it too fast or you will just hurt yourself and be set back even more. I hope this was helpful, even though it's a short novel, and PM me if you have any other questions! It's always nice to know you aren't alone.