The Colon Club

Hi all - I've been lurking for a few months, it seems most of these types of groups have migrated to other social media platforms (i.e. facebook) which I initially started looking through but became very discouraged with all the doom & gloom and unmoderated, literally thousands, of groups out there. Even though it seems I've stumbled upon what appears to have once been a very active board, I'm finding some good information here and there which has been helpful. I'm sure this question has been covered a million times in the past, but I was wondering if anyone with a recent experience with having a colectomy could ballpark what to expect after this type of surgery - i.e., how long was it before you were able to get out of a chair without assistance, getting back into a somewhat normal routine, etc. My surgical plan at least going into it is to remove the sigmoid bit of the colon to get the primary tumor. It won't extend down to the rectal area so I'm not expecting to have to have a bag, but I know that's a possibility and I'm ok with it if that's what has to be done. I know that the bowel issues after this type of surgery will just have to work themselves out, and everyone might have their own individual experiences, so just like many of you, I'm prepared to just deal with it and get on with life as best as possible.

thanks-

Jeff

From your signature it looks like chemo is doing you good. Great!
I don't have any advice for expectations you are asking about but bet someone will come along.
Good luck with surgery. Let us know how it went and how you are doing.
Beach

Hi Jeff - I've had two surgery's now. They weren't identical to what you are having as my tumor was lower so I ended up with a temporary ileostomy however, I can say that recovery from my first surgery took longer than I hoped, but well within the range that one should expect. I was walking about day 2 in the hospital and went home on day 4 and I was back to daily exercising (and by exercising I simply mean walking on a treadmill and light weights, planks, and squats) about 8 weeks after. Don't know how helpful or not that information is, but there ya go

- Joe in NY

It has been 6 years since my husband’s colectomy, and his was an emergency surgery due to a obstruction so I don’t think it will be a one to one with your experience. We were in the hospital for a total of two weeks, but they kept him longer because he was popping a mystery fever in the evenings. In later surgeries he has had problems with an ileus almost every time which usually sets him back a few days in the hospital. I feel like getting around unassisted took him a couple of weeks, and he was back to work by week six.

His most recent surgery was a failed tumor removal and small intestine diversion, and he has recovered pretty well. It took a week for his gut to wake up, but he was easily walking around the hospital by day two with my help. He only needed my help a little once we got home, mainly anything related to bending/lifting/twisting. We made adjustments to the bed and sofa to make it easier to for him to get up on his own, but he needed help getting back into bed probably a week after we got home. He’s back at work on light duty after 4 weeks post op, and he doesn’t need me to help him much at all! Just with lifting anything around 10 lbs and above.

Thanks for the replies - it's so hard to know what to expect since everything is so specific to "you" and your own situation, but it's helpful to know how others have gotten on which helps! I'll be going in on the 13th, I suppose I'm as prepared as I can be. It's been nice to have been off the chemo regimen for a month now, but it's also surfaced to me that the neuropathy from the oxaliplatin may be more permanent than I had anticipated, which is a bit depressing. Anyways, at least overall I've responded well to the treatments so far, so I'm just happy to be on this side of the dirt, as some say. Thanks again.

Hi JPDALTON, this is Javi, from Spain.

My primary was also in the splenic flexure so I ended up having left colectomy but no need for colostomy bag.

The recovery took less than a month, I think, but i had open surgery, if you have laparoscopic surgery it may be faster for you.

At the beginning even coughing or sneezing (or indeed taking a deep breath) was painful. But i never needed a chair. And I starting taking walks in a few days.

Good luck

Javi

Thanks for the replies, I thought I should update. I had my entire sigmoid colon resected on Feb 26. This captured the entire tumor plus a hard mesenteric mass adhering to the iliac artery; only one out of 18 lymph nodes removed was positive for cancer which I thought was great! What was not so great was developing a hernia which was only diagnosed a few days after surgery when I wasn’t getting better. I had an NG tube for a few days because I was vomiting black bile. After the hernia repair it was as if my body had reset itself and I left the hospital after 10 days total. I still have some surgical incision pain but my gut is working as expected now and I’m on the mend. Still have a ways to go but one hurdle is down.