Entire rectum removal....how painful is it?

[k9 fan]

I will need to have my entire rectum removed because the tumor is too close to the spincter. What is the recovery time, hospital stay like? Is the pain post surgery manageable....ouch!
Thanks!

[johnnys84]

I had the entire colon and rectum removed in october 05. With respect to the rectum removal I dont specifically recall any pain associated with it. There was just lots of drainage. Presently it just sort of feels tight, sort of like you have a permanent wedgie. Its not uncomfortable, just a tight feeling like I said.

[johnnys84]

I should have added this. You will be in the hospital probably 7-9 days. They are going to constantly try to get you out of bed, do walk around as much as you can. BUT, try to avoid sitting in a chair, rather lay sitting somewhat up in the bed. It will allow the rectum area to heal better, and put less stress on the sutures.

[july181998]

Hi Johnny,

I'm having my entire colon and rectum surgically removed July 2nd, 07'. Do they actually put a tube down your throat, and what should I expect when I wake up?

[johnnys84]

The tube is only in place while you are knocked before you wake up its taken out. However, if while recovering in the hospital you begin to throw up (frequently) they will then do the NG tube (up the nose into the stomach ) (FYI NG means no good) I had it done during my first procedure I had a very overactive intern. ALso they do not knock you out for it.

Though I knew I was throwing up because I was taken off IV and then given everything in pill form however I wasnt eating so of course I threw up. You know your body better then any intern so if you dont want them to do it, voice your opinion.

[johnnys84]

I have to admit I am pretty bad at answering all the questions in one response. Upon waking up it will hurt to breathe due to the incision just take little baby breathes it passes soon after.

[johnnys84]

if you have any other questions please do not hesitate to e-mail me. johnnys84@hotmail.com

[PGLGreg]

I woke up with an NG tube after surgery for rectal cancer, for suctioning out gastric juices while my digestive system was shut down (I was told). It wasn't due to vomiting, so far as I know -- just seemed to be standard operating procedure. I had it in for over a week. It gave me a sore throat and made it awkward to brush my teeth. Other than that, it was no special problem.

[cynnycal]

Well, it isn't standard procedures for all hospitals to leave the NG tube in.
I did not wake up with one, but yes, a couple days after surgery when i started throwing up and wasn't even eating yet, they threatened me with putting the NG tube in.
well, that sure put my vomiting to an end.
no NG for me.

I didn't have any 'pain in the ass' at all (pun intended) with the rectum removal. It was probably the least of my concerns through it all. Many other things to concentrate on.
by the 9th day (leaving the hospital) i didn't even need a dressing on it.
although, the most annoyin is the bulky stitches they use. that made it uncomfortable to sit sometimes. couple weeks after surgery the doc trimmed down the stitches a bit. that helped IMMENSELY.

[Lifes2short]

I had my rectum and sphincter removed. I was in the hospital for eight days. I did not have an NG tube. They gave me an epidural for pain - this was a good thing. When I came out of surgery they couldn't get my pain under control so they had to do an epidural. It made a huge difference. After about three or four days the weaned from the epidural onto oral pain meds.

You will have an incision in your abdomen and your rectum. You will also have a colostomy. Check out www.uoaa.org for lots of helpful ostomy info. You will need to meet with an ostomy nurse before surgery to determine where to they'll put your colostomy. Take your time in making this decision, you don't get a second chance.

My doctor took out 26 lymp nodes around my rectum. He also removed other suspicious looking nodes in the area. All the nodes were biopsied. I don't know if this is standard, but from other posts I've read I think it is.

Both incisions will be painful after surgery. You will likely be on pain meds for a while. After about a month or so I was able to get back to a fairly normal life. After two months I was able to do pretty much everything I could do before surgery.

Good luck. It's a big surgery, but you can recover and live pretty normally afterward.

[Discoclub]

i encourage you to investigate alternatives to traditional surgery. I plan to keep my rectum and the therapy appears to be working.

There are other patients who are thriving also. understanding cancer helps one to kill it.

pm if you want links to research.

[cd]

Everyone is different but I hope this is positive for you.

Yeah it hurt pretty bad, I couldn't stand straigt for awhile but I got out of bed after a few days, had the tube(s) removed after a few days, they don't just stick one down your throat, you got to pee on your own too or else.

I went through 6 weeks of daily radiation to get the tumor to shrink and the goal was resection. It was close, but they removed the rectum and resectioned it, gave me an ileostomy while I went through further chemo then put all that plumbing together 8 months later.

If everything were the same, you should get a resection. It is the closest thing to being normal, but it really takes time to get used to it, no matter what your going to have, you are going to get used to a new norm. For me, I am resuming my life, I haven't had the problems others have had, I can only say I had some great surgeons and doctors.

Sleep, sleep, sleep, I was lucky, the morphine made me itch so they gave me benedryl, knocked my sorry ass out in a heartbeat, I recommend this even if you don't itch.

You will feel like your on another world everything was so alien. Especially when they had to change the bag attached to my stomach. What a trip.

They will put those pump things on your legs so you don't get blood clots and they will probably have you try to use those sucking/breathing devices so you can learn to breath deeply again (because of other complications).


They cut me from the front about 3 -4 inches above bellybutton down to the leg, probably about 7-8 inches in all and I had about 40 staples there. Again, they cut my lower right abdomen for the stoma.

You will probably have a permanent bulge in the areas they moved things around. I think I was in the hospital for 9 days.

Someone else talked about walking, best thing you can do, get off the pain pills as quickly as possible.

Good luck, hope you have the good luck I have had.