When surgery is required to remove part of or the whole sacrum, rehabilitation will depend on exactly what muscles and nerves have been affected.

Your medical and rehabilitation teams will discuss with you and how it may affect your everyday function.

After excision of part of or all of your sacrum, you will be seen by different members of the rehabilitation team to ensure all your needs are met. Your rehabilitation will usually start the day after surgery.  The physiotherapist will see you and teach you the appropriate exercises to do and will inform about your rehabilitation plan. It is very important you do the exercises to make sure you get the best possible function following your surgery. The physiotherapist will tell you when you can expect to be allowed to start getting out of bed although this will only be considered when the medical team are happy with your wound healing.

You may have some restrictions after surgery.

You will also be seen by an occupational therapist whilst in hospital who will discuss how you will manage your activities of daily living after discharge. They will suggest any methods that will enable you to continue with as many of your normal daily living activities as possible and will assess you for any equipment that you may require. They may also refer you to your local social services for further assessment.

You will be given exercises to do at home after your discharge and it is extremely important that you do these regularly to make sure you get the best possible outcome after your surgery. You will also be referred for ongoing physiotherapy as an outpatient at a location that is most convenient for you.

You will be referred to all members of the rehabilitation team that are appropriate for your individual case. However if you feel that assessment by any of the other team members may be beneficial to you, please speak to your physiotherapist, Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) or medical team who will be able to refer you.

You may be able to obtain more specific information about rehabilitation after sacrectomy from the hospital where you are having/have had surgery.

Disclaimer: As surgery for sarcoma is individual for each patient, rehabilitation will be tailored to each patient accordingly. The information given in this section is a general guide and individual cases should be discussed with your rehabilitation team.