The Colon Club

Sorry to keep creating new threads here but I am freaking out.

My mom had her takedown on Friday and my biggest worry then was just having her get used to the new bowel and all of the issues I see people post about here, but we aren’t even there yet.

It’s been 48 hours with no bowel movement and instead we have dark red blood (increasing in quantity and now with clots) coming out the back and she has violently vomited twice on Saturday and has a distended stomach so they are saying she likely has an “ileus” and now can’t eat or drink anything and has an NG tube.

I am freaking the eff out because neither of these things seem like the normal stuff that should be happening. I am so scared because I don’t know how long either is supposed to last and what it means for her future recovery.

I have no useful information, but I'm sorry your mother and you are going through this.

I did a quick search on ileus, and there may be a few helpful tips in several of the threads:

search.php?keywords=Ileus&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Hope things get better fast for your mom (and you!)

I’m not an expert on any of this, but my husband did experience similar situations post surgery (vomiting, ileus, NG tube)...it was all very scary and unexpected at the time. He ended up in the hospital for 22 days and even went home on TPN (IV nutrition) for weeks....this entire situation scared the hell out of me, and I didn’t leave his side while he was in the hospital....if I did have to leave, I made sure someone else was going to be there with him.... continue to ask questions and if something doesn’t seem/feel right, ask about it and seek out another nurse or doc. At one point I had to call family members to come in and help me advocate because I just wasn’t thinking clearly....that was a big help...prayers for you all...
jep

Also, they had my husband chewing lots of gum and walking as much as possible to help with the ileus ....I don’t have any experience with the blood or clots, but just keep asking questions until you feel comfortable with the responses...

So sorry to hear what your mother is going through! I had an ileus during my recovery - lots of nausea and vomiting green bile and had the NG put back in, but it passed after a few days and I was eating solids within a week. The surgery shocks your digestive system and can cause it to become temporarily paralysed. I was told to walk as much as possible to "wake up" my digestive system. Also, opioids can constipate you and make the problem worse, so only press the pain relief button when it's really needed. I think ileus is a reasonably common complication of this type of surgery so try not to worry too much, but if you are still concerned then keep pestering the doctors - that's what they are there for. Wishing your mother a speedy recovery!

How's she doing today?

Thank you all. I’m pretty sure I read through all 29 pages of ileus stories on this site yesterday.

No one seems to be overly concerned about either the bleeding (which they said could actually be some watery stool mixed with blood that makes it look like all blood) or the ileus condition at this point (Day 3). However, last night they said they would try a clamping test with the NG tube this morning and then they decided against it bc there’s still too much output. It’s just so frustrating and hard to watch her not even be able to take a sip of water.

I am hoping that we are looking at days and not weeks here bc I have no idea how we are going to do this. Plus I am 4 hours away and have just been driving back and forth bc I have two small kids at home.

Is having an ileus indicative of all the other function problems down the road or are those things independent?

I did not experience this but we had someone from either Australia or New Zealand that went through this for about three weeks and then things woke up. He had the NG tube in for a long time.

So she ended up having the NG tube in for 48 hours, the second day being a 3 hours off 1 hour on continuous clamping trial. It seemed to be going well so they removed it on Tuesday and had her on all liquids. Then moved to small portions of food on Wednesday and was released yesterday (Thursday.)

She seems to be feeling good now but the new problem is she hasn’t had a bowel movement in 24 hours since leaving the hospital. I’m having her call this morning because that doesn’t sound right to me and I’m worried her ileus is back.

Good idea to call....I always call when I am worried...hopefully things get moving soon!

Her care team wasn’t super concerned when she called yesterday but they said if it doesn’t happen in 48 hours to try some Miralax. So around hour 47 she was on her way from the store with the Miralax and guess what happened.

But yay at least she’s okay

That’s great! Sounds like things are improving....hope the rest of recovery is smooth

I’m glad that she’s through this setback.

I'm glad she's doing better!