Running after minor abdominal surgery

I had an abdominal laparoscopy Tuesday (girly stuff, nothing serious, no worries) and the Dr really wasn't sure what to tell me about when I could run again. She said she normally says no strenuous exercise for 1 week, but admitted that she lacked experience with runners and didn't know if I should wait longer, such as maybe two weeks or if I could run earlier, such as at 5 days if I felt good because I am healthier. Nothing about running should particularly cause issues with the procedure I had done. Does anyone here have any experience with this? Although I'm still quite sore today, I will probably feel fine by the time one week gets here and I really don't want to take two full weeks off if it isn't necessary. I figure running= strenuous exercise=one week, right?

I had fibroid surgery back in 2005, and I ran after a week - so I would guess it is similar.

I'd go by feel and make it a short distance that you can loop many times, in case you really hurt and can't walk very far.

Just listen to your body. I had a minor surgery, the surgeon said no don't run the 10K tomorrow, it wouldn't be prudent. I ran with a little bleeding but still PR'd. So I don't always take advice from non-runners but I bet you'd be fine to start back whenever you want. I follow that rule for most things, just listen to your body and back off you know you should.

My prediction that I would feel fine in a week didn't pan out. I didn't have the best of recoveries and took Vicodin for about 5 days straight.

I ran 3 miles on day 8 after and it was rather uncomfortable. Then I ran 3 miles once again around day 11 and it was uncomfortable. I'm at 15 days post-surgery now and felt good yesterday, so I was going to try to run up to 6 today, but now I suddenly have pain near the belly button incision site (I had a scope with three incisions), so I am likely calling off those plans. It is rather frustrating!! I'm supposed to start marathon training in a few weeks and am worried that this will mess that up! I was planning on trying a 10 day cycle though, which had me starting a month early. So I could go back to a weekly plan and start in January if I have to.

This all has made me very aware though of just how much we use our abdominal muscles in day-to-day life, and in running! I'm also aware that my abs likely need to be worked more once I am up and running again!

Anyway, just an update in case it helps anyone in the future who has a similar surgery.

Sorry I missed this thread. I had my gall bladder out a few years ago. I too tried running 5 days later- didn't go too well. It took 2 weeks before I could go longer than 30 minutes.

Can you start some lights exercises to begin restrengthening the area?

Dave-O wrote:Sorry I missed this thread. I had my gall bladder out a few years ago. I too tried running 5 days later- didn't go too well. It took 2 weeks before I could go longer than 30 minutes.

Can you start some lights exercises to begin restrengthening the area?

I am right at 3 weeks from the surgery now and can run pretty normally again, but I can tell that I took 3 weeks off! So I'm not ready to suddenly go long yet. I tried some ab exercises too, but that is still a bit uncomfortable. I'll try again in a week on those.

I decided to switch my marathon plans to one a month later (doing Traverse city instead of Illinois) so that I can wait until January to start training and still do my planned 10 day "weeks" for it. It will also still allow me to run at Illinois with my friends. I'll just do the half there as a training run instead. So it all works out in the end.