Recuperation

[Gloriamazz]

Hi my name is Gloria and IHave posted in here before.
On August 8 2018 I had a laparoscopic perineal resection with colostomy.

I stayed 5 days in the hospital and returned with horrible infection and went home on the 30th with antibiotics of Cipro and Flagel.

It has been a month and my rear end hurts and I don’t feel well. Have no appetite.

What is the average time to feeling well again?

The Dr took out 12 stitches out of my rear Last Tuesday and really unbearable.

Does anyone else have the rectal removal?

At first I was Stage 1 T3 No nodes that changed Tumor was going into vaginal wall now Type2T3N0. Dr removed rectum. With new classification he has not mentioned Chemo and looking in line with staging it is given under Stage 2. Any thoughts in that.

[NHMike]

It sounds like you've had a very rough time.

My rectum was removed as well though my treatment lasted about 13 months and I didn't have a colostomy - I had a temporary ileostomy and reversal. A colostomy was a possibility though. My understanding is that the colostomy means that waste is diverted into a bag at the large intestine. I've heard that it can take a few days for the large intestine to wake up and start working again. Steve in NZ had the problem where it didn't wake up (still waiting for an update from him).

If the pain is from irritation from the waste (which I am familiar with), then using a barrier product might help. I've been using Cavilon Spray for it because I had a few leftover bottles but I have a barrier cream that arrived today that I'm going to try. If the pain is due to another reason, then someone else would have to answer. Are you in touch with your surgeon over your pain?

[Gloriamazz]

Hi Mike,
It is rear end pain (butt) pain where he removed the stitches.

IHave called past two days the office does not get back to me.

You have a reversal I don’t but then you say your rectum was removed

It had been a month and I still feel sick. I have not had any treatments and I would think I should feel better each day. It does not happen

My intestines didn’t need to wake. The bag is always full. Lower down it is thicker

You have had chemo?

All I know is I feel like hell.

[Soccermom2boys]

Hi Gloria—oh man, I am so sorry to hear how rough your recovery has been. Naturally there is going to be pain and a decent recovery, but yours does sound like it is not the norm unfortunately. I had apr surgery with a permanent colostomy in December of 2015. I was home five days later and honestly was able to walk at least a mile a day once I was home. My diet was low fiber as I was urged to give the ostomy a chance to get settled so to speak, but I did have an appetite, I don’t recall that being an issue. My surgeon was very diligent in reminding me to not sit directly on my butt for more than 20 minute intervals and to try and avoid it as much as possible in general for the first two months. I really did do my best to “sit”/recline/lay around on couch so that I was not directly putting pressure on it and I am fortunate to say I didn’t have any extra pain than what would be expected. However when I was still within a month out of surgery and had to drive in a car to an appointment, it hurt like hell! I did the least amount of being in a car as was possible during that time because it did hurt to sit directly on it but when you are in a vehicle you can’t really avoid being on your butt.

It was a full eight weeks before I would say I felt “recovered”, but then as I was a stage 3, I did have chemo after surgery (about 7 weeks after). Fortunately by that point I was close to feeling recovered so the chemo didn’t really hamper my surgery recovery.

As for chemo post surgery, it really does appear to be a mixed bag with stage 2a like yourself. I think based on the pathology report from your surgery they look for any possible high risk factors to determine if it’s necessary otherwise it may be your possible decision to make. With having a lymph node test positive for cancer after my surgery, chemo was a definite for me.

Again, sorry you are having such a tough time of it. Try to keep off of your rear as much as is possible and while I know you said you are having a tough time with eating, my surgeon was also a stickler for having patients get high amounts of protein to help with the healing process as well. Sending you healing thoughts.

[NHMike]

Hi Mike,
It is rear end pain (butt) pain where he removed the stitches.

IHave called past two days the office does not get back to me.

You have a reversal I don’t but then you say your rectum was removed

It had been a month and I still feel sick. I have not had any treatments and I would think I should feel better each day. It does not happen

My intestines didn’t need to wake. The bag is always full. Lower down it is thicker

You have had chemo?

All I know is I feel like hell.

My cancer was in my rectum so it was removed. I had chemo and radiation beforehand and chemo after the surgery. The reversal was for the ileostomy removal. The first six weeks were pretty awful and my surgeon told me that that was to be expected.

It sounds like you're seeing pain from something else. The rectum being removed may leave a lot of nerves endings that used to be connected and they may be firing pain signals or it could be something physical. Soccermom2boys had something a lot closer to what you had so I think that her experience and opinion is more relevant.

[Gloriamazz]

Thanks Mike, Now I understand with the iliostomy. You are probably right about nerve endings but last time I had this pain it was an abscess. I just now got off Flagyl and Cipro.

The doctors office called and sent me for a cat scan. Havent heard the results as of yet.

I will look at soccer mom’s post. Ito wentfor a colostomy and came out with colorectal cancer.

I had. A colonoscopy 2015 in February it was clean. In Dec 2016 had indigestion and irritable bowel it was probably this tumor. The did test but not a colonoscopy probably because justhad one a year ago. Soin 2016; 2017 and to August 8 had a tumor growing. Saw the pictures from 2015 and their was not a tumor there