51 year old male (Pacific NW US). My timeline of event
02/20/2018 First colonoscopy - 3 sub-mucosal lesions (10-20 mm) in ascending colon, near hepatic flexure. No biopsy sample taken and no idea if benign/malignant. CT/Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) recommended
04/13/2018 CT Scan shows no metastasis to neighboring organs
06/15/2018 EUS of ascending colon shows lesions originate in layer 4, Gastroenterologist suspects Gastro intestinal stromal tumor (GIST). No biopsy samples possible because of location.
07/24/2018 One final attempt at biopsy, biopsy sample does not show sub-mucosal layer of interest. Location tattooed for surgical reference. Decision to proceed to right colectomy
09/26/2018 – Right colectomy
Surgery/Recovery
Not sure if it made any difference, but I used the doctor’s office recommended surgery prep drink (Impact). Lots of reviews complained about fishy taste, but I did not think it was too bad and not too different from the protein shakes I was drinking. Miralax/Gatorade prep was tolerable (more on prep formulations below). Per doctor’s office recommendation, did not shave my abdomen. I read in one of the threads about the Foley catheter and recommendation to shave inner thigh, but did not follow that sage advice.
Day 0- Checked into the hospital at 5:30 am. Follow instructions to keep surgical wipes away from sensitive areas. (does sting if you do get close). Woke up a few hours afterwards, with IV, patient controlled analgesic Dilaudid (PCA), 2 small incisions (Dermabond) and one large incision with stitches (through belly button) and a a catheter. Spent rest of the day drifting in and out of sleep. Not a lot of pain, and I think I only used PCA 4 times (?) while it was in place – (great job by the surgical team). Nausea on sitting/standing was pretty bad. With the help of the nurse attempted to walk that night and only made it about 20 steps before I had to sit down. No appetite – just apple and cranberry juice all day.
Day 1 – pain minimal, still hooked up to IV and catheter. Nausea all but gone by mid-afternoon. Goal of 4 walks for the day, did not start on first walk till about 2 pm and did not finish the last one till 10 pm. Secondary goals – pass gas and have a bowel movement. Do all 3 and I can leave the hospital
. Lots of noise in my tummy during the day, but no sign of gas till ~8:00 pm. Still no appetite but ate 2 flavored yogurts and 2 small bowls of soup. At some point, catheter is taken out – a little burning, but not painful. Catheter (line itself) is held static by a catheter stabilization device that is apparently super glued to my thigh. Shaving my inner thigh would have made removal of stabilization clip a lot less painful. Day 2 – I manage a watery stool, which makes the grade and I am out of the hospital about 2 pm. Pain around belly button is minimal but definitely feel it when coughing, sneezing and laughing. Holding a pillow against the stitches helps a great deal. Only walked about a 1000 steps that day, set a goal to increase by a 1000 steps every day and work my way back to 10,000 steps/day. Only a single pain pill at night before bed.
Day 3 – Feeling a lot better and walked about 2500 steps. Only a single pain pill at night before bed.
Day 4 – Walked about 5000 steps. Stopped pain pills. Coughing is still painful, found a little pillow I can carry around that really helps when I hold it against the stitches.
Day 5 – walked around grocery store and outdoors - 7500 steps, Yay!
Day 6 – beginning to get on my wife’s nerves, maybe I should be back at work
. Still waiting on pathology results. Will update as I make progress. Input/output – I was very concerned about the loss of 30% of colon causing food sensitivities and diarrhea on the output side. Have been adding back in a couple of new items to my meals every day and have not seen any major sensitivity. Coffee at breakfast may be a stronger trigger than before, but need additional data points. Absolute number of bowel movements have increased from ~1-2 /day to 2-3 /day (?). Less well formed, but definitely not watery diarrhea.
Bowel Prep experience (did not know I had a choice till I complained about being miserable with the first 2 on the list). Listed in order of use for procedures above
1st Suprep – metallic taste made me nauseous
2nd GoLytely – volume + taste = nausea + vomiting
3rd Moviprep – sucralose makes it more palatable and volume = 50% of GoLytely
4th Miralax+Gatorade – like this best
