Oh, hi! I’ve not been on Fluther these last couple of days, so I’m just seeing this.
You might know that my most recent hospitalization (around this time last year) was for exactly this.
A bowel obstruction can be resolved non-invasively (via a naso-gastric tube) but since you said surgery was needed, this means an abdominal incision was made. Laparoscopic or not, an incision would have been made – in this case, laparoscopic just means it was a smaller incision.
I believe mine was done laparoscopically. I was in the hospital for 8 days. I didn’t resume working from home even though my job is not at all physical for about 3 weeks post surgery. About one month after surgery I went back into the office – but again, my job is to sit in a chair and type, and I still found a full work-day very draining at this point. I was off narcotics about 5 or 6 weeks after surgery but still in quite a lot of pain much of the time. And to be honest, it took about 6 months before I stopped having random aches and pains that interfered with my quality of life.
It took several months for me to finally heal the abdominal wound – it came open because surprise, it’s really hard to eat after gastrointestinal surgery, and you have to eat if you want to heal.
I don’t know if my case is representative of the average. I have youth on my side but I’m not the most overall healthy person in general.
If you have a personal reason for asking this question feel free to reach out in PM any time you want.