Activity After Craniotomy for Pituitary Adenoma

[Sarah3764]

I am recovering from a craniotomy for a 4.2cm pituitary adenoma. I was an avid excersizer before and am looking forward to getting back. My doctor says I need to wait but i need a little hint in how long I should wait. I used to run 3 mi/day, swam, lifted weights, and anything that kept me moving. My question is-will I need to worry about pressure changes in my head and do I need to progress slowlyause of this? I know sit ups will be out of the question for awhile but how long? He also said it may take up to a year for me to lay flat so this is why I bring questions about working out. Can anyone give me any kind of a hint??  I know I'll have to be patient but anything will help right now-any experience or suggestions.... Thanks

[LucyEvony]

You are 9 days post op !

You have a fair amount of time before you can go back to heavy exercising....at least 3 months before lifting weights !!!

Its best to follow the advise of your doctor. They will let you know when its the best time.

For now ide be sticking to walking ( that will keep you moving for now).

Im pretty sure you also shouldnt be in water for the first few months

[rumpled]

There is surgical recovery and hormonal. Perhaps your hormones need a bit of balancing.The hormones being off can impact how sodium is retained and that much activity can be an issue.

I hope you are being followed up regularly for your hormones.

[Kielin]

I had a craniotomy last august. It's almost 8 months ago. I started doing some jogging and lifting weights around two months ago. Sometimes I was feeling rough after workout but next day everything was ok...until last wednesday. I went for a boxing class and of course I wasn't silly enough to boxing with someone, I was just doing excercise and a little punching in a bag. Next day I felt terrible and today is already a week from that class and I'm still in bed. I don'tknow what happen. Reason why I had craniotomy was a subdural hematoma from the assault. I just hope I'm not bleeding again this time. My advice? Before you start doing some heavy excercise wait at least a year. These few months isn't that long but long enough to your body to heal properly. I think I've started to early and i'm paying the price now. Tomasz

[Sarah3764]

Yeah-it was 4cm. I just had my follow up on friday(post op day 9) and got to compare the pre and post MRI of the where the tumor was. It was pretty amazing. I'm surprised I didn't have more problems than I did. Only issues I had were vision problems and headaches. The vision problems included not being able to read signs while driving and reading the computer or books... The headaches toward the end were pretty bad and they haven't relieved yet but I"m sure the pain now is because of the surgery itself.  I'm 29 and they said the tumor had probably been there for awhile. They had to remove it by craniotomy because it was so big and it branched out to the right. The Transphenoidal approach wouldn't have been able to get it all if they did it that way. I have a pretty significant incision on my hairline now. They removed the staples on my follow up appointment. I'm doing pretty well now. Just waiting to have my hormones checked next week by my other doctors. Not sure if it's because of the medications they put me on but I've been pretty emotional since coming home. Pain and different meds are probably the culprits. The pain I can best describe the craniotomy is like a big pressure around surgical site. They wrap your head pretty tight to control swelling which doesn't help the pain after surgery.   Light and loud noises are the worst things to be around right now and make it worse but it is getting better. I was in the ICU for 2.5 days for monitoring and then was on a neurology floor for 3.5 days. I don't have any issues with walking or anything now. I was a healthy individual before surgery so that was a big help in my recovery. It's just a mental game now that I'm trying to get through-being positive and being independent with my daily activities. What kind of questions do you have?  

[enzymelover]

Your adenoma was really 4cm? I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm interested in your craniotomy experience. My son may need to have one, though  his adenoma\cyst is only 15mm.  How are you feeling? How long ago was your operation?