Recovering from colorectal cancer treatment and surgery is a whole-body experience—your comfort, mobility, and mental well-being all need attention. After undergoing chemo and surgery in 2019, Brooks Bell, the co-founder of clothing label and colorectal cancer advocacy brand Worldclass, emerged with a handful of tips to make recovery more bearable.
Brooks’ main advice: get some structure, like firm pillows. You’ll be exhausted and have a very sore core. And while your body is doing a lot of work to pull itself back together, you can help physically support it. Also, you can prioritize comfort, and you don’t need to abandon style while you do it. Fitted clothes might not feel great, but a loose house dress can go a long way to help you feel dressed, while secretly feeling totally cozy.
Brooks shares her favorite comfort items and recovery essentials below.
Firmly Supportive, Well-Designed Pillows
Your abs are wrecked, your back hurts from lying flat all day, and elevating your legs is a lifesaver. I first borrowed a yoga bolster from my yoga studio. When you're exhausted, but you don’t want to be fully asleep in bed, it's really great to have a full-blown pillow system that supports your back, knees, and head so you can nap, watch TV. I’ve gifted this multiple times for chemo and recovery.
Bendy Straws
Simple but essential. Hydration is key, and bendy straws make drinking while reclining much easier when your core is sore.
A Squatty Potty
Your plumbing is all jacked up after surgery, and you need comfort on the toilet. A squatty potty helps align your body for comfortable bowel movements, reducing strain and discomfort. This foot stool from Proppr is really clean and elegant, and I still use it today.
Soft, High-Waisted Underwear
You want really comfortable undies with no elastic bands, because elastic bands or tight waistlines are unbearable after surgery. Look for seamless, high-waisted styles that don’t press on your midsection.
I like Chantelle’s SoftStretch High-Waisted Briefs. These are not sexy undies. They're very comfortable, and they don't have any tags. They’re very smooth and they don’t compress at all. They have a soft stretch.
An Alternative to Pajamas: the House Dress
Any pressure on your midsection is super uncomfortable. I actually avoided pants of all kinds for over a month. But I had a couple of go-to house dresses; they are a step above pajamas. You’re not trying to look cute, but I wanted to feel like I was dressed.
I wanted something that wasn’t quite a pajama. It’s a dress and it gives you the sense that you are dressed without actually being dressed, like this one from Rowan.
And then a stylish one was a dress from Frank & Eileen. It’s cute and extremely comfortable, and you can wear it all day. I love that dress without being like a nightie. You don’t feel like a total slob rolling out of bed.
Tools for Taking Care of Your Very Upset Hands
The chemo I did, basically, means that you lose the top layer of your skin on your hands and your feet. It's extremely dry skin. Even if you don’t lose hair, chemo can cause peeling or neuropathy. You want something with urea. I used Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Hand Cream. It’s not fancy, and they don't even [foreground] the fact that it has a lot of urea. It’s awesome.
And I ordered white gloves that are made for polishing silver. They're disposable— and I would throw them away after the day. But holding a fork felt so cold, touching any metal was so cold, it helped with cold sensitivity. I would cut off the finger tips to use my phone.
Brooks recovering with her wedge pillows, and wearing white gloves to help with neuropathy. Photo courtesy of Brooks Bell and Worldclass.
A Simple Anti-Nausea Strategy
I used SeaBands, these wristbands that apply gentle pressure on acupuncture points for nausea. They put subtle pressure on your wrist and it really helped. It was like that, combined with a Zofran that made a difference. I kept the bands on all the time. [Editor's note: Always check in with your doctor about any medication, of course.]
Lead image, photo courtesy of Worldclass. Photographer: David Needleman.
