The Colon Club

Hello all, I had an extended right hemicolectomy surgery was on 7/19. They had to convert to open due to the location of the tumor. I seem to be doing good other than a couple of issues. My surgeon doesn't seem to think they are any big deal, but I would very much like your opinions and experiences. The incision is healing very well, but it seem like I have gas trapped somewhere in that general area that comes and goes, I also have been having what I assume are bad gas pains in my lower left abdomen at night. I will fall asleep for a few hours and wake up with it. I have to move to the couch and it seems to get a little better. Anyone use GASEX? The only other issue I have been having recently is some nausea after eating. It started about a week ago and it comes and goes also. My diet is very clean and low inflammatory right now. I had a CT done last week and everything seemed normal except for a couple of small bowel loops.

Any info would be appreciated

It may be the bowel loops, similar to a blockage.

I have blockage issues with scar tissue a year out from surgery. My blockage is at the junction of the small intestine and large intestine though.

Once it clears, there's a flood but I will usually get gurgling sounds and pressure - sometimes it's painful. It comes and goes every three to four minutes. I usually either sleep on my left side or on a recliner or on the couch when this happens. I think that the only way to get rid of this would be to have surgery to clean up the scar tissue but it could still just come back.

You're not even a month post-surgery, so some aches and pains are to be expected. Your "plumbing" has been rearranged and it takes awhile for things to settle down. The pains (glad you had them checked out by your surgeon!) could be from the "resettling" or from kinks or near-obstructions.

You might try this exercise the next time you feel pain: Lay on the floor, pull your knees up to your chest and rock back and forth. This realigns your intestines and can smooth out a kink or a minor blockage.

And yes, Gas-X helps so feel free to use it! Also try ginger for the nausea - either ginger ale, ginger snaps, or nibble crystallized ginger. You're smart to be eating low inflammatory and low residue right now. That's gives everything time to heal up.

Hope this helps!
Juliej

Since you had open surgery, there is a good chance that you have at least a few adhesions. Adhesions are scar tissues that cause parts of the intestine to adhere to each other and cause kinks that sometimes lead to a condition called Small Bowel Obstruction (SBO).

You can read more about adhesions here:

https://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52932&p=417613#p417613

http://coloncancersupport.colonclub.com/search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keywords=+adhesions&author_id=97334

I think you should probably talk to your surgeon about this to see if anything needs to be done now in order to avoid a Small Bowel Obstruction in the future.