Hi all,
Tomorow marks my mother's 3-week recovery from ileostomy reversal. She was doing okay up until last week when she developed a horrible excruciating pain in her rectum. She said her pain level was a 9 and explained it to be like "Ice picks" while going to the bathroom. So she finally took an Oxycodone. I had a conference call with the on- call rectal surgeon dr. and she thought it was a fissure base on her complaints. She had her follow up appt today with the rectal surgeon and it looks like her pain is from a fissure in her sphincter muscle from hard bowel movement. He has her taking a special powder drink to numb the muscle for a week so it can heal.. and she is also on a cream called "Clotrimazole and Betamethrasone Dipronopionate". Has anyone tried this?
My mom came over and she could barely stand or sit without shaking or moving around. She spends most of her time in the bathroom and home and she cannot go anywhere as she feels the need to always go. I feel so bad for her but I warned her about how the healing can take a while and sometimes this is just how it will be. Here are my questions:
1. Is this a normal healing process for a reversal ileostomy? Even a fissure?
2. When do you start to feel somewhat normal again to where you can travel on a road trip, fly, or even go shopping or to the zoo?
3. We have spent a fortune on creams/meds for her. She loves Aquaphor, and we tried the expensive zinc creams such as Calmoseptime, etc. I have also bought her sitz bath that you can put on a toilet commode but she WILL not try it. She is stubborn. We have metamucil, immodium, myralax, etc. etc. The Metamucil she stopped due to making her go alot but now I'm thinking she should still take it.
My mom couldn't even attend my daughter's b-day party yesterday and she lives on our same street. I feel awful for my mom because I was hoping that her life would be getting better after the reversal but it's almost like she can't even enjoy her life anymore. She has also lost about 12 pounds which I am really worried about thinking it's from the diarrhea. I have offered her the Ensure drinks too. I hope that she will feel better soon. This whole process has been hard on the whole family. Hard seeing her in so much pain and discomfort. We are hoping that this fissure will go away. I hear they hurt bad!