Potential Surgery Advice

My husband has had Crohns for 3 years and this time went in for a colonoscopy and CT scan. Dr. found a severe stricture of the ileocecal valve and enterocecal fistula. He has recommended a resection of my husband's terminal ileum and cecum. We are wondering if this is the right step to take since my husband's symptoms do not seem to be too severe. He gets stomach cramps with vomiting every 6-8 weeks. He has been on Asacol 2 pills three times a day for the past three years. Is a resection the way to go?

I was in a similar situation..... partial obstructions every 6-8 weeks.... but that timeframe kept getting smaller
I wont tell you what to do, but dont wait for surgery too much... I decided to go through surgery when I had obstructions every week :\ lost a lot of weight because of it
my advice would be this... talk with your GI as soon as possible, and discuss scenarios and make a plan (example: we'll try meds, lets say remicade, but if it doesnt work will do ... etc) and go for it as soon as posible to avoid loosing time :)

good luck ;)

Post Edited (Escalador) : 5/11/2010 9:03:42 AM (GMT-6)

It's probably scar tissue... My guess is that the GI would treat any inflammation he saw immediately but even if it was all inflammation, once that goes down there will still likely be scar tissue left behind.

I ended up electing for surgery when I couldn't handle the pain but I did put it off for several years. By the time I gave in to it, I was worse off than I ever should have let myself be (there was more damage in there that could be seen on tests/scopes) which complicated the surgery and recovery. It won't get better just doing what he's doing... he'll just get more and more obstructions and pain and could end up with an emergency surgery that would likely be done open vs laproscopically, which he could probably have right now.

Surgery isn't easy... but it would allow him to start over again. I'd give some serious thought to having it. Before you schedule the surgeon consult, I'd visit with the GI again about the type of inflammation he saw to make sure there isn't another option. I did have quite a bit of scarring and inflammation for a couple of years and various meds (Remicade/Humira/Cimzia) did buy me more time. I kept begging my GI for any other option and we went through them all before he said I was out of extensions and needed to just do it. I'm glad he let me come to that decision on my own but I'm sort of a control freak ;)