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Resection Stories, Please?

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Posted 5/4/2009 11:49 PM (GMT 0)
I am going under the knife, I would appreciate hearing about anybodys experience with a resection!

Small Intestine had a stricture, tried everything....    Its go time!

How long were you in the hospital?

How long were you off work?


Did you loose weight?

Anything other info will be greatly appreciated!!!!

Thanks friends

Posted 5/5/2009 2:22 AM (GMT 0)
How long were you in the hospital?

7 Days. I was cut from around my belly button straight down. Loved the morphine pump. I had not slept well for months. While I am sure I needed it for pain, the sleep was the best part. Pay attention to the nurses. Walk, sit, stand when-ever they tell you. Even if it takes every ounce of energy you have.

How long were you off work?

6 weeks. Take all the time they give you.

Did you loose weight?

OH GOD DID I Loose weight. Yes. Absolutely. And gained it all back once I was healed. I had no idea how sick I was. My metabolism has never been the same. I gain weight like there is no tomorrow. I hate it sometimes.
Posted 5/5/2009 3:25 AM (GMT 0)
Good evening Curly my first bowel resection at 18 can't remember how much they took out that time,is this your first major surgery? In my opinion i would have to say that your first resection is going to be nothing that you can imagine and i can't explain it to you but i can tell you this the pain that i had prior to the operation was a lot worse to what i had after the surgery you will likely be given a pain=pump were you can control your own pain meds by the push of a button and there is no fear of over dosing because its on lock-mode which means you can only get so much in a certain time frame,as for how long was I in hospital that also depends on you and whether you get an infection or not but the normal time for a bowel resection is about 7 to 10 days but that don't mean your ready to go back to work another thing after a bowel resection you will not have any fluids or food by mouth until you have bowel sounds and movement,getting up the next day is hard I'm not going to lie to you but you have to get up cause you need to cough up all that yucky stuff from your lungs you also have to get up cause you can get blood clots in your legs,you will be on IV fluids and antibiotics you may also have a NG tube down your nose to prevent you from vomiting and get all that bad stuff out of our belly,you will also have a hemovac which is a small tube coming from the open surgery site to drain the old blood out. The best thing i can tell you is get up even if it hurts cause this time once this pain is gone there will be no more pain,walk around your hospital room with help don't do anything on your own for a while,always keep a pillow at your belly on it in case you have to sneeze or cough and push the pillow into your belly same goes for getting out of bed don't strain yourself use your upper body don't use your belly muscles.I hope that helps you if you got any more questions feel free to send me an E-Mail or post here. God Bless You.  Jenn smilewinkgrin   smilewinkgrin   smilewinkgrin
Posted 5/5/2009 3:38 AM (GMT 0)
Hi, I'd be glad to share my story with you. It's kind of a long one. I'm about to go to bed, but maybe I'll type it up and send the reply tomorrow. Please feel free to email me anytime! Rainbeaux

Posted 5/5/2009 3:39 AM (GMT 0)
My first resection was in 1976, then had one every 7 years there after.  Each time was different.  The first one I was down to 95lbs (5'10") spent 5 days in ICU and 21 more days in hospital.  After that I had the resections done before I got that weak.  All of my surgeries where long cuts from above belly button to just above the privates. In fact they removed my belly button during one of them. Hopefully you can have the tube type surgery (forgot the name) with two or three small incisions. Recuperation time is suppose to be much shorter. During the period of time that the insurance companies were determining the length of hospitalization, I had one of the surgeries and was released 3 days after the surgery with the NG tube still inserted.  One surgery they hooked the IV tube on the door knob and stretched the tube till it pulled out of my arm and shot across the room.  I was half out of it and saw it happen before I could react. I did hear the Doc give'em hell before I went out. lol. Actually aside from that incident it was propably the best surgery and best care of the four resections. Your recuperation time is going to depend on the type of surgery they do and how well your body heals.  I was usually able to go back to work in 4 to 5 weeks. (take orders by phone, drive to sales call, light work). As for as weight goes, my weight was usually down before the surgery and I would slowly gain the weight back.  After the surgeries I would be very careful what I ate for the first few months, keeping track of foods I ate and adding only one new food a day to see how my body reacted. I found that only the heaviest roughage foods and tomatos and tomato sauces bothered me.  Milk causes a lot of people with CD problems but I was able eat ice cream to gain weight. Each case seems to be different. You will have to find out for yourself what food causes you problems.  Best of luck to you!  Relax and enjoy the nurses and painkillers. 

Posted 5/5/2009 11:21 AM (GMT 0)
I just recently had a resection due to a stricture, they removed 18" of bad gut. The surgery was done Laproscopically with 4 incisions, the longest being about 4" alongside my bellybutton.
I was in the hospital 5 days.
I was off work I think 2-1/2 weeks.
I lost about 15-20 pounds but I slowly gained it back.

I posted my surgery from start to finish on here, if you dig around you might find it.
Other than that it was n't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The first 2 days are the worst and it's all down hill from there.

Good luck!!
Posted 5/5/2009 11:37 AM (GMT 0)

I'd give you my resection story, but it was almost 20 years ago now and it was due to an emergent rupture.  It would not really compare to scheduled surgery and current care. (10+ weeks due to sepsis, 5 weeks more off work and lost 40+ pounds which I gained right back)

I will say though that "not worrying" is easier said than done.  BUt I highly recommend a calmness before.  It has been shown to help in healing.  Also, it has been recently studied that a good 8 hours sleep the night before surgery provides less need for pain meds after (sorry can't site a source as I just thought it made sense and logged it in my head).

Wishing you a quick recovery and relief.

Posted 5/5/2009 2:02 PM (GMT 0)
I had my 3rd resection on march 20, they cut from inch above belly button to just above privates. I had surgery at about 12 pm on the 20th and went home on 23rd around 2 pm. first week was a little rough getting around the house, but felt so much better everyday. Today I feel 100%. I don't work but I would guess I could have gone back to work at about 5 weeks ( but no lifting or anything like that. ) Well good luck to you, I'm sure you'll feel much better. cmn
Posted 5/5/2009 2:21 PM (GMT 0)
I had my first resection Feb. 2. They took out 16 inches. I was in the hospital for 5 days. I was off work for 8 weeks, but that was only because I had a baby 2 weeks before the surgery. Mine was done laproscopically. I have a mark above my belly button maybe 2 inches, and 2 tiny tiny scars on my left side. I was really amazed at how good I felt. And after you have the surgery, really go by the diet. They told me to do it for 2 weeks. And on Valentines Day I thought I would have me some tender steak (b/c i wasnt able to eat that before) And I shouldn't have ate it then. I was really down, b/c i was thinking why did I even have surgery, b/c they same pain happened as before. But my surgeon told me to stick to the diet for longer and that some patients inflammation from surgery takes longer to go down. :) so don't get discouraged if the same happens to you. And I losted weight, but i don't know if it had to do with the surgery or baby weight. Maybe both. But good luck!!
Posted 5/5/2009 3:27 PM (GMT 0)

This was from my post back in 07:

I have to agree. I just had a resection 4 weeks ago and I had an open incision. They just couldn't do it lap. Morphine didn't work at all so they gave me an epidural. That was the best thing they could have done. I felt no pain after that and had that in for 4 days. It enabled me to get out of bed and walk around. I passed gas on day 2 and moved my bowels day 3 and went home day 5. I was in good spirits. I also agree that it takes a long time to recover. 4 weeks later and for me it feels like 4 months. Even my hubby feels it was so long ago.

I'm eating most foods but when I got home from the hospital I didn't want to look at food. My appetite is good now but not even close to where it was before. I have lost 10 lbs. That's a hard way to lose weight..whew!

I didn't have a NG tube and my doctor assured me I wasn't going to have one either. I'm not allowed to lift anything over 10 lbs or push or pull. I am able to bend and do very light things around the house. My scar is healing and it's sore and there are good days and bad. I have D which I had before but the docs tell me that will take a while to subside. New plumbing has to re-learn what to do with the bile salts or something. I'm waiting..

I didn't gain weight with my crohns but if you are eating more sugar as a comfort you may experience weight gain and bloating. I notice the less sugar I eat, the better I feel. Hey maybe the experts are right about sugar.

I just went to my GI as a follow up and he is prescribing no meds. He does want me to go for an early colonoscopy on the summer to see if anything is brewing.

I hope you don't need surgery but if you do you have a lot of us here to help support you through it. good luck.

Posted 5/5/2009 3:29 PM (GMT 0)
I wanted to add to the above.  The biggest problem for me was the tiredness.  I felt like I was 90 years old for the first week or two.

I went back to work 5 weeks later on a limited work week.

Two weeks after that my brother was critically ill and I had to care for him so my healing went out the window.

I didn't go on meds at the time because I wanted to try and conceive.  I wish I did.  The data my GI had wasn't complete and I probably could have avoided much pain and heartache if I just took the meds.

Good luck with everything

Posted 5/5/2009 3:37 PM (GMT 0)
I had a resection about three years ago and was in the hospital for a full week. I spent about a month at home recovering due to the incision the Dr. made, which was about 4 inches on the side of my stomach. I lost about 15 pounds, but the hardest part was rebuilding my stomach muscles. It took me a good two to three weeks before I didn't feel so weak and tired. Definitely take the time to recover because you will feel exhausted and weak, but it's completely normal.

Good Luck!
Posted 5/5/2009 3:53 PM (GMT 0)
I have had two resections. Both were open incisions just as described above, with incision starting about 1" above bellybutton to just above my privates. I was in the hospital 10 days for both of mine as I got an infection in my incision each time (do a prep before your surgeries, that will help avoid infections). I had a NG tube for both of them, but they are not always used (they usually put them in while you are out). Be sure to ask about a pain pump as you are able to control your pain meds vs the nurses. Be sure to walk and walk and walk, that will help your recovery. You will have some explosive diarrhea for awhile until your bowel adjust to the changes, so be prepared for that. I was out of work for about 8 weeks afterwards. Most folks are out for 6 weeks, and do take the time to rest afterward, don't rush back to work no matter how good you feel. And be sure to take maintenance meds after to avoid any future surgeries. Hope your surgery goes well and you enjoy a long long remission afterwards.

Good luck,
Gail *Nanners*
Posted 5/5/2009 4:17 PM (GMT 0)
I had two emergency resections in November '08 after finding abcesses caused by colon perfs. My surgeon removed about 8-12 inches of my colon on the left side and put "in" a temporary colostomy (which I am getting reversed in 10 days, yea!!!!!!) through a 4-5 inch open incision from just above my belly button to just above privates. They had to leave the incision open because of the abcess. I was recovering from this one ok, but not advancing my food intake of solids very well. So my doc ordered another Ct and found another abcess in the lower right quadrant of my abdomen. I went to surgery 4 hours later and woke to find myself getting a blood transfusion. I also woke to an ng tube that I got to keep for 3-4 days (that was not a lot of fun) and was in ICU overnight. My wife and I both (though neither of said anything until after I was home from the hospital) thought I was probably not going to make it through the next 24 hours. They had gone back in through the original incision, but expanded it upward (my scar is about 8-9 inches long now

and they will use this same incision to reverse my colostomy). I had been in the hospital for 10 days prior to the second surgery for dehydration and then the docs being unable to stop diarrhea (every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day for 3 days). I was in for another 11 days after surgery. the nurses were definitely making me get up and walk. I have a four year old daughter, who loved to help Daddy with his exercise and she would walk next to me through the halls while I pushed my IV pole. The nurses loved it.

Definitely do what the nurses tell you to when it comes to moving. It will help your body keep from getting blood clots, improve circulation, and help improve your strength.

Keep us posted.

Posted 5/5/2009 8:43 PM (GMT 0)
Hi I had a right hemi 15 yrs ago and never regreted that decision as it put me in remmision till sept last year stayed in hossy about a week after op. in Jan this year i had an op for two strictures in the small intestine and also a fistula i had this op under an epidural (out of it not awake) rather than a general as the anethaetist (spelling?) said it was a quicker recovery with having it done this way  and less risky it is then used after the op as pain relief as well as the morphine pump.i had less pain afterwards this time around than the op 15 yrs ago hope all goes well for you im sure it will. will be thinking of you take care hun. Bev xx smilewinkgrin smilewinkgrin
Posted 5/5/2009 9:34 PM (GMT 0)
I forgot to mention that I donated two pints of blood pre surgery in case I needed to be transfused.  I ended up needing them a few days after surgery.  My hemoglobin was very low.  Almost anemic.
Posted 5/7/2009 1:14 AM (GMT 0)
Woah thanks everybody... I have to go talk to the surgeon next week so I will keep you posted!
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