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What To Expect With Surgery

Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 12:00 am
by Deep
So, I got my surgery on Monday. I am kind of nervous but am ready to get this over with. My tumor is located 9 cm from the anal verge and I was told to expect an ileostomy bag when I wake up. Just wondering if anyone is willing to share their experience and who could tell me what to expect during recovery. I was a smoker and am on the patch which I was told might affect my healing times.

Thanks

Re: What To Expect With Surgery

Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 6:56 pm
by Pyro
Well I have a colostomy so I’m not a lot of help there, I did however, get by in recovery with nicotine gum.

Re: What To Expect With Surgery

Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 10:16 pm
by sbpaq1
Surgery was, for me, a breeze.

Only my experience...

Pain - Assuming, with good reason, you will have LAR Surgery with a minimally invasive approach the pain will also be minimal. My surgeon was utilizing a quick recovery approach which included absolutely no narcotics and honestly they werent needed, I was home two days after the surgery.

The front exit - Your ileostomy will be a temp bag out of surgery, the nurses will come in and give you a real one most likely the day after surgery. You will be asked to keep track of the output before they let you out, same with urine after the catheter. While I am sure you met with an ostomy nurse pre surgery I took a video of it just in case asking multiple questions along the way. It helped when I got home to refer to.

Recovery In the Hospital - This means walking, walking and more walking. I was up about 6 hours after being put in my room. Progress through the liquid diet, then soft foods and normal foods pretty quickly. Catheter should be taken out day after surgery as well. Also, kinda nasty, there might be stuff continuing to come out your backside while in the hospital for which you will have no control over. The nurses and doctor say its fine and it is, dont sweat it.

Misc - You will most likely get a wound bulb that collects liquid you will have to empty periodically but its a nuisance rather than a problem.

Back Home - If you are not a good back/side sleeper get used to changing that. For the first 2 or weeks I could only sleep on my back because turning to my side was painful and obviously you cannot sleep on your stomach. A good recliner is great for the first week or two until you dont have pain when turning and then you can go side sleeping(either side). I dont smoke but was a caffeine addict, that becomes a no-no at first because your dont retain water as the colon goes offline where our water is normally recycled. The ileostomy will take some time to get use to and the biggest surprise to me was the smell, it smells far worse than a normal bowel movement.

Overall dont be worried the surgery it is the least problematic or traumatic thing to get through. The radiation pain was far worse, the folfox clean up(in the dead of winter) is far worse, the pain of getting your ileostomy fitting wrong and getting severe irritation is worse. If I was given the option to do the surgery every three weeks or my current chemo I would take the surgery, that should say something. I am not looking forward to LARS either but we do what we must to tackle this beast.

You will be fine :)

Re: What To Expect With Surgery

Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2019 12:37 am
by Punky44
My mom is three weeks out from surgery and our biggest hurdle is the ileostomy itself and just dealing with eating with it and changing it. The surgery itself was not that big of a deal. My mom’s was robotically assisted laparoscopic so she’s got a few mini incisions here and there and then one maybe 3-4 inch vertical one on her lower abdomen. She was super bruised for the first 2 weeks—whole side where she was laying and thigh, but it’s all faded now. She never needed anymore pain meds than Tylenol/Advil. But the ileostomy has been by far our biggest challenge beyond anything. Thank god it is only temporary. Good luck with your surgery on Monday!

Re: What To Expect With Surgery

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2019 11:10 am
by CF_69
I had my surgery almost 4 weeks ago. I woke up without an ileostomy. I had a laparoscopic LAR. Surgeon took my sigmoid and about half my rectum.

I was up and walking after a few days. I just walked 8 km the other day. Ive read it’s good to stimulate your bowels, however I’ve been having a lot of constipation issues.

Maybe I rushed back to eating normal food.

I’ve just been having a lot of trouble getting things moving. I’ve had success with prune juice on a couple of occasions, but not every time. I’ve been taking miralax fairly regularly, but can’t tell if it’s doing anything.

I had “success” with milk of magnesia once, but I took some this morning, and nothing.

I’ve had pretty bad back pain around my lower left hip area for about a week now, which I’m sure is related to the constipation.

Overall it hasn’t been very fun. I keep reading that it will get better, and I’m looking forward to those days.

There’s a ton of info on people dealing with reversals but I can’t find much on those of us that were reconnected straight away.

Lately it seems that either I pass mucus and gas, or little pellets.

I need to work tonight so I’m just drinking coffee and will down a protein shake before I go and hope for the best.

Re: What To Expect With Surgery

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2019 3:02 pm
by Lee
CF_69 wrote:I was up and walking after a few days. I just walked 8 km the other day. Ive read it’s good to stimulate your bowels, however I’ve been having a lot of constipation issues.

Maybe I rushed back to eating normal food.
.


For constipation issues, try a low fiber diet or for me, spinach or salad greens, They will have me going within a hour of eating it. Cheese on the other hand will slow me down.

Walking is probably the most important thing you can do following surgery. I would recommend bring a wrap around robe for walking those halls. It easier to get in and out of and does a nice job in covering the back end.

Good luck with your up coming surgery.

Lee