has anyone regretted getting a resection?

Does the VA provide any services to help while you convalesce at home, Navy?

Oh, Navy. There are no words, hon. You don't need this.

I was in desperate need for a resection when I had mine; I was getting obstructions every day and they wouldn't stop. Plus the crohn's had spread so much. The radiologist told me it was a huge confusing mass of disease in there.

I second Ivy, get stocked up on as much safe food as possible. Even cook and freeze some easy to digest dinners. Chamomile and green tea with honey (decaf if u wish) is a must.

After the resection, don't go too crazy eating all the good food you've avoided because believe it or not, you can still have crohn's symptoms that can get worse and worse. Ie: spicy foods, sugar, processed foods, you know the drill...

If anything, a resection is a good way to "reset" your bowels and start all over with healthy food. After my resection, I soooo enjoyed eating salads and veggies and fruit that I had avoided for years!!! It was heaven.

Best wishes!

I'm so sorry you don't have the support you need close by Navy. I have never regretted my resections and all three were open. I was in the hospital for less time after each one, probably due to "new" insurance rules, not because I was recovering all that much better. But it was 7 days, 5 days and then 4 days. I did have help at home, but I also had very small children. I could take care of myself, but not them. If you have the things in your house as Ivy suggests and some friends/neighbors who can perhaps help with some light shopping for fresh food you should be OK. I was weak but doing pretty well within a couple of weeks, back to work in 4 weeks after one and within 6 after the others, but I was doing office work, nothing physical.

Hey Navy,I am so sorry you are at that point. I do not regreat the sx. I was alone through it pretty much as you will be. I have a husband,if you can call him that, but he decieded to take an extended fishing trip after I returned home. It will not be easy, but you are tough!!!!

Hi Navy,
I'm so sorry your going thought this.

I waited 15 years, most of that time very sick, until I got a block that I couldn't argue with. I had to have surgery I was 75 lbs and the drugs just didn't work for me.

A part of me regrets not having the surgery sooner, and I was thoroughly disappointed that immuno suppressants don't work for me. Still I did get a 9 year relative remission with the surgery. I had to get a pouch due to surgical complications -- not because of the CD. But I finally got to eat pretty much what ever I wanted. I was pretty much on my own, if not for friends I would have been screwed. Also, my recovery was a couple of years as I had to have surgery the following year to repair an incisional hernia. That went ok, the first time.

My bigger complication was when I got the ostomy reversed, and had an auto-immune reaction to abdominal mesh. Mesh failure is about 50/50, auto immune rejection of it is quite rare, though my doc told me while I was the first he'd seen, I have not been the last.

From my understanding surgery is harder on the overweight and more prone to complications. So they may have to do a midline and insert mesh. Do your research on this, mesh rejection was in many ways worse than my CD symptoms.

Surgery can help, when it gets that bad it seems the only solution. As it did in my case, it has lead to more surgeries, and now surgery for anything poses a real risk to my life.

I have just flared in my gut for the first time in 9 years. I have flared in my skin and tendons in these 9 years, CD attacking other parts of my body.

Recently, through my Rheumatologist, I was proscribe a drug to see if this would help my shoulder issues. As I did my research, I found it is being tested for CD in the US. I started taking it 3 weeks ago and my flare is abating and I am not yet up to the full dose. It's called Low Dose Naltrexone -- I think there are posts on this site regarding it, it's why I signed up here this morning. I am eating again, a week ago I could not eat two days in a row. (It's easy to google look for the org site)

I would be finding out more about this drug before trying surgery, if I were you. You'll know in a month if it's helping, or sooner...Surgery is an option, but it's best to try and make it a last resort, I think.

Oh Navy, I wish I had some super words of wisdom. Something that hasn't already been said, but sadly, I really don't
have much to add. I've had 2 resections, the first was an open midline surgery, the second, was laproscopic with incision,
and I have to say there wasn't really much difference, not for me anyway. The recovery time was maybe a little quicker.

You know Navy, regardless of what we all say, at the end of the day, it's your decision to make. If you and your body feel
that you need this surgery. You'll get through it like the trooper you are. If, however, you're a little uncertain, I'm sure your
doctor can allow you a little more time....

I'm also wondering, if it's not you lupus symptoms giving you problems right now. The reason are I say this, is because you say
it has worsened since the weather has warmed up. That's so typical of lupus.

Please know I'm thinking of you, and if you need anything just shout. ((( hugs))) x

Thanks for all the advice. It is helpful. Part of this is that the VA is very slow if it is not an emergency, but last fall I was to the point I really wanted it out because I was in the hospital so much, and I felt like crap. But now I feel Better (sorry if I did not say that correctly before), and so I am not sure what to do.

Unfortunately LDN is not an option for me, due to other issues (orthos). But I appreciate the suggestion.

I think I figured out a plan.  If I my disablity payments are ok, then I will go to Mayo and get another opinion.  Might as well get the best if I can afford it.

Navy, could you hire a walker for yourself if, like Aimee, you have trouble standing upright for long? Walkers often have a padded seat, so you could sit whenever you needed to.

Another thing to consider is your living arrangements at home. Do you have a place where you can sit (rather than stand) to prepare meals, do the dishes, eat; things like that?

It's also possible to hire something called (here, anyway) a bed stick, which will help you get in and out of bed without putting too much strain on your abdo muscles.

You mentioned a while ago that you have a cleaning lady. Does she still come?

I can't say that I regret it. My crohn's and obstructions were so bad that if I didn't have the surgery I wouldn't be around today to write this. It got so bad that every meal was an ordeal of me wriggling on the floor in severe pain. I tried to avoid surgery for years before I finally gave in because things got too serious and gave me a real scare. Why I waited I will never understand? The nice thing after surgery I would panic at meal time expecting the pain to follow but it didn't. I was even able to have seconds.
The only thing I do regret is the bile acid diarrhea which persists chronically ever since I had the surgery and that can be annoying especially when it's several times a day. But before I had diarrhea and pain, now it's only diarrhea for the most part and a sore butt and fissures .
I had 7 years of freedom from crohn's pain after surgery, even though the crohn's presented itself at a later date it didn't really cause me the severe pain I had before. Now I am in trouble again with bowel narrowing due to scar tissue at surgical site. It's getting to the point where I will have to go soon and have it dealt with. When it comes to severe narrowing from scar tissue, there is not much one can do to stall the process and pills and treatments won't help. So here I go again.

Personally I've never understood people who spend years trying to hang onto an intestine or part of an intestine that's causing them nothing but grief and robbing them of they're lives. I say go for it. I had 2 done and long stretches of remission with each. I never thought twice and never looked back.