Luis wrote:I feel a pulling feeling and I am unable to button my pants or wear a belt. I would like to know if anyone has had similar problems. I also feel like a cold feeling or sensation on my private parts. Please respond if you are feeling the same so that I can know its a normal process.
Hi Luis. I felt an odd sensation at my scar site (laproscopic but my incision was much larger than normal). It felt like my insides were going to spill out. That went away. I wore drawstring pants every day until it did (a few months maybe).
I had other weird sensations too that went away.
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My biggest complaints were--
1) Not enough time on disability--dr. said NY Disability won't approve more than 2 weeks for a colon resection despite my serious complications. Disability only paid for 5 days, and I had to fight for months to get them to pay even for that. I was in the hospital for week 1 and was prescribed narcotics for weeks after I returned to work. Had I taken them I would have been driving under the influence and fired....1 reason I didn't take painkillers.
For the next 9 months, I was in the bathroom every 10 minutes for months at work and embarrassingly excessive/untimely gas. I conduct meetings--I am the center of attention. You can imagine how it was.
I also had post-cancer fatigue a few months in and could not stay awake. I fell asleep at work and almost fell asleep at the wheel while traveling for work. Dr. said oh well, it will go away, Disability won't approve any time off for this.
My coworker who had a planned pregnancy had an uncomplicated birth & went out on disability the same exact day I did. She was given an "automatic" 8 weeks on NY Disability (paid) and kept talking about how she felt great after 3 days and spent the rest of the time taking care of the baby. (NY Disability is just to cover one's own illness--it's not FMLA.) She got her check right away w/o a fight. (wishing there was a WTF emoticon
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2) Very inaccurate recovery expectations. Treatment team said recovery is 2-3 weeks & back to normal. I am now on year 3 and I would say I became as 'good as it's going to get' at about 2 years. Had bouts of diarrhea and dangerous constipation for a few yrs. Dr. said oh yeah, some people have that experience but b/c you are young and skinny I didn't think that would be you.
I am still not 'back to normal' but it's under control. If I eat a big meal, eat rice or cheese, too much of 1 food, not enough fat, too much sugar/alcohol/salt, I am in excruciating pain the next day and am swearing like a pirate.
I have a high pain threshold but, I'm telling ya, this causes my eyes to go black it's so bad. But it's do-able--I only have that for 10 minutes a few times per week.
3) Dearth of info about what to do/expect. Had I been given some basic nutritional info I would not have had to find it out by trial and error. I asked if I could get a referral to a nutritionist and dr. said it's not necessary. I have since realized I need a lot of vegetable fat in my diet or I will have constant constipation followed by diarrhea. I noticed I functioned better when I ate more fattening stuff! Then I looked it up and lo and behold, the part of my colon removed is the part that digests fat. I probably would have felt better MUCH quicker if I knew even that 1 piece of info.