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Posted 9/4/2009 3:22 AM (GMT 0)
My big day is September 22 (unless my surgeon's wife goes into labor around then). I'll be getting my ileocecal valve (with a little extra on each side) removed laproscopically. I have lots of questions for those of you who have been through this:

Do they put the NG tube and urinary catheter in after they have put you under? When did they take them out?

How did you feel when you first woke up? Was there a lot of pain, or were you sufficiently drugged up?

How was your pain managed? Was it effective?

Did you have an epidural? Would you do it/not do it again?

How long did you have to stay in bed? Did you sleep a lot, or were you awake most of the day?

When did you first eat/drink?

When did you go back to eating normal food?

Do they always put a drain in, or only in certain cases?

How many incisions did you have (for laproscopic surgery)? How big were the incisions?

I had my gallbladder removed laproscopically. How much worse is a resection?

Also, when I had my gallbladder out, they put a super annoying "airbag" type device on my legs to prevent blood clots. Do they still do this?

How will this affect bowel movements? Does the body adjust to not having the ileocecal valve and go back to normal BMs?

The prep day instructions say I can have cranberry juice and grape juice. Is that right? I always thought you probably had to avoid red/purple type drinks when doing a clean out for bowel surgery.

When can you take pills again? I take Effexor, and if I miss a dose, I feel incredibly weird (withdrawal I guess). I'm worried how I'll feel if I have to miss multiple pills.

Do you have any helpful suggestions for getting through all of this as smoothly as possible?

That's all I can think of for now. Wish I had come up with my list of questions BEFORE I saw the surgeon eyes! Thank you for any info you can give!
Posted 9/4/2009 5:34 AM (GMT 0)

spookyhurst said...
My big day is September 22 (unless my surgeon's wife goes into labor around then). I'll be getting my ileocecal valve (with a little extra on each side) removed laproscopically. I have lots of questions for those of you who have been through this:

I've had 3 bowel resections, but they were not laproscopic, just the old-fashioned slice-and-dice type. So maybe yours will be easier. But I'll answer you questions according to my own experience.

Do they put the NG tube and urinary catheter in after they have put you under? When did they take them out?

They definitely put the catheter in while you're under, but the NG tube will probably have to be done while you're still conscious. That's because they need you to swallow while they push it in. That's the key to making it go down easy, with each (hopefully gentle push) you need to swallow. Otherwise, you choke on the thing. It's not that bad if the person inserting it is patient and gentle.

How did you feel when you first woke up? Was there a lot of pain, or were you sufficiently drugged up?

It wasn't the same each time. The last time, they were good - when I woke up, they had already added in a morphine drip to the IV. The first two times, it was delayed a few hours, which was bad. So you need to ask your surgeon about that to make sure the drip will be there right away.

How was your pain managed? Was it effective?

Demerol (which is an opiate) either mixed with the IV solution, or in one case in a device so that I could inject myself as needed. You need it for about 3 or 4 days. After that, you shouldn't need pain meds.

Did you have an epidural? Would you do it/not do it again?

No, never had it.

How long did you have to stay in bed? Did you sleep a lot, or were you awake most of the day?

You will be encouraged to get out of bed as soon as possible. I couldn't for the first two days, but tried to move around as much as possible. This is important to avoid adhesions, and it speeds up healing. You need to push yourself. Do not sleep away the day, even though it's easier.

When did you first eat/drink?

You can't eat or drink until the first bowel movement. about 4 days after the surgery in my case. Moving around reduces the amount of time you will have to wait before your bowels begin to move.

When did you go back to eating normal food?

It took months. For a long time, I could only tolerate the softest food, like overcooked rice.

Do they always put a drain in, or only in certain cases?

In all 3 operations, I had a drain. It's not a big deal. Doesn't hurt, really.

How many incisions did you have (for laproscopic surgery)? How big were the incisions?

Can't help you there, I never had laproscopic surgery.

I had my gallbladder removed laproscopically. How much worse is a resection?

No clue.

Also, when I had my gallbladder out, they put a super annoying "airbag" type device on my legs to prevent blood clots. Do they still do this?

I never experienced that.

How will this affect bowel movements? Does the body adjust to not having the ileocecal valve and go back to normal BMs?

I assume that my ileocecal valve is gone, and I haven't noticed a big change in bowel movements. Well, I did have plenty of diarrhea for awhile, but that's over with now.

The prep day instructions say I can have cranberry juice and grape juice. Is that right? I always thought you probably had to avoid red/purple type drinks when doing a clean out for bowel surgery.

The clean-out I had to do was the same as for a colonoscopy.

When can you take pills again? I take Effexor, and if I miss a dose, I feel incredibly weird (withdrawal I guess). I'm worried how I'll feel if I have to miss multiple pills.

about 10 days after surgery.

Do you have any helpful suggestions for getting through all of this as smoothly as possible?

Stop worrying so much about it. After it's all over with, think about making changes to your diet so that you never have to go through this again.

best regards,
Robert
Posted 9/4/2009 8:43 AM (GMT 0)
Do they put the NG tube and urinary catheter in after they have put you under? When did they take them out?

In 1 instance the NG tube was placed while I was under the 2nd time it was after I had issues so the NG was palced while I was awake. The catheter has always been placed in my while I was asleep. The removal of the NG tube and catheter varies on progress post op

How did you feel when you first woke up?

Was there a lot of pain, or were you sufficiently drugged up? I was in lots of pain I do have a high tolerance for pain meds though. I opted for the epidural (however my surgeries were not laporoscopic.

How was your pain managed? Was it effective?

I was using (after the 4th Surgery) a duragesic patch, the epidural and pain pills when the epidural was out for episodic pain

Did you have an epidural? Would you do it/not do it again?

I had it 1 time and asked for it on the 4th surgery (they tried to get away with not doing it only to find it was my only relief from my pain) I would do it again in a heartbeat

How long did you have to stay in bed? Did you sleep a lot, or were you awake most of the day?

It varied on my surgeries my last resection removed a fistula in addition to adhesions they had me up and walking the next day

When did you first eat/drink?

It varied with each surgery they (all but 1) was able to after i passed gas had a BM however after the 1st and 3rd I had complicationms (mine were all emergency surgeries making things a bit tricky) like I had a BM after the 3rd surgery but it was kind of a false positive then had to go the NG tube route for a few days then back to clears etc

When did you go back to eating normal food? about 1 week post op

Do they always put a drain in, or only in certain cases?

I did not have a drain in any time until I ended up with infection inside my abdominal cavity since prior to my surgery my intestine had perforated casuing the infection...Since my surgery was the old way and I had that perforation I ended up with a wound infection and had 1 each time thereafter and was told most likely any surgery I have in that area will do that (ugh)

How many incisions did you have (for laproscopic surgery)?

How big were the incisions? n/a for me never been "lucky" for any surgeries Crohns related or otherwise to have laproscopic surgery

I had my gallbladder removed laproscopically. How much worse is a resection?

Sry my gall bladder was taken out the old fashioned way too...I must say from what I recall I had more pain after my resections though

Also, when I had my gallbladder out, they put a super annoying "airbag" type device on my legs to prevent blood clots. Do they still do this?

they sure do until you walk more and more

How will this affect bowel movements? Does the body adjust to not having the ileocecal valve and go back to normal BMs?

I Had 4 suregeries 2 in Feb 07, 1 was resection (bowel didnt wake up had temp ostomy, then had complications with that had it reversed crohns gave me a fistula had my last resection jan 08...missing only part of my ilium but missing 3/4 of my colon now and I never have a formed BM anymore some days I will only go 1 time others I will have 10 )

The prep day instructions say I can have cranberry juice and grape juice. Is that right? I always thought you probably had to avoid red/purple type drinks when doing a clean out for bowel surgery.

I didnt have prep instructions for the first 2 however I asked my dr's assistant they werent too sure and rather than go ask the DR they just said to avoid it which I planned to do anyway

When can you take pills again? I take Effexor, and if I miss a dose, I feel incredibly weird (withdrawal I guess). I'm worried how I'll feel if I have to miss multiple pills.

It all depends If there is an NG tube pills wont to much good unsure if they have an IV form of that med I was unable to take my meds that were pill form until the NG was removed then I was ok to take pills again

Do you have any helpful suggestions for getting through all of this as smoothly as possible?

Go slow with food, liquids If you have questions/concerns never just go without asking even if it seems like something silly, I noticed more of my incision infections before my doctors. You may want to eat light a few days prior to your prep but high calorie I know I lost a biut of weight granted I was not on TPN for many days while I had the NG tube and I had it longer than the norm. If you have crummy veins like me they suggest I get my IV placed prior to a prep since that makes it harder but if you are 1 they get 1st shot you shoudl have no problems there (they tried 1 day 13 times for me...) eating light the few days prior will help the prep go a bit smoother (less time on the toilet)

That's all I can think of for now. Wish I had come up with my list of questions BEFORE I saw the surgeon ! Thank you for any info you can give!


GL
Posted 9/4/2009 1:14 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Spooky,

I too have had 2 open resections. For the first one it was an emergency, so they put the NG tube in the ER. Not completely pleasant, but not horrible either. The 2nd they put it in while I was out. For both the catheders were inserted while I was out. I will not lie, I was in some serious pain after both when I woke up, but they quickly quieted it down with pain meds. I would recommend asking for a pain pump so that you can administer your meds when YOU need them and not have to wait for a nurse. I have heard many have had success with the Epidural, I didn't but that was because it wasn't place right, but most do well on them. The 1st resection they gave me Demerol every 3 hours, and the 2nd they gave me a pain pump with Dialaudid. I got infections in my incisions after both, so I was on pain meds for weeks afterwards. I highly recommend doing a bowel prep beforehand to avoid the infection (IMO).

I did sleep alot myself as I was usually pretty drugged up to keep the pain in check. I think my pain was a little worse than mosts because of the infections in my incision. I think they brought me my first liquid food about 2 days later. To be honest I never ate too much, I tend to be like that when I have surgery, its just a me thing. I would take foods very slowly for the first few weeks. When I got home I was eating things like baked chicken, mashed potatoes, soft easy to digest things. I did have those leg things after all my surgeries, this helps to avoid blood clots. But the sooner you are up and walking the sooner you can lose them.

As for your meds, call the doctor and find out if you can take your meds with a sip of water. If I remember, I think I was able to so many hours before. Each doctor is different.

My best suggestions to help is to walk as soon as your able, and continue to walk, walk and walk some more. This helps to get the bowels to wake up. I did have some explosive diarrhea, but for most things quiet back down in a few weeks. When getting up a pillow on your belly helps to support the area. And I have heard that chewing gum after surgery really helps too.

I hope your surgery brings you to a long long remission. And my personal opinion is the best thing to help this long remission is to be sure to take some type of maintainence med afterwards. I didn't after the first, and I wound up having to have another surgery 3 years later. IMO I hope I have helped some.

Good luck and God Bless Spooky,

Gail*Nanners*
Posted 9/5/2009 5:57 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you Nanners, Robert, and GL! It helps to here what other people have gone through.

The ER attempted to put in an NG tube once. It did not go well, and they gave up. My throat was sore and my voice was croaky for quite awhile afterward. Maybe they didn't have much practice at doing NG tubes (I hope that was all it was).

I'll definitely try to get up and moving as soon as possible!

After surgery I'll still be on Pentasa, but the surgeon said I could stop Humira. Now if I can talk my GI into prescribing LDN, I'll be happy. I'll still follow SCD too. I've gotten used to eating this way, and would actually have a hard time going back.
Posted 9/5/2009 12:46 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, I had an epidural to knock me out rather than a general as its less risky and is also used after the op for pain relief as well as the morphine pump i will definately have it again i had no pain whatsoever,  even the morning after the op they had me up walking about with no pain Once i came off these at day 3 i just had gas around my back and a bit sick but that was it i would highly recommened the epidural good luck Bevx

Posted 9/9/2009 2:07 PM (GMT 0)
Had first bowel resection done two weeks ago...hope this helps.

 

Do they put the NG tube and urinary catheter in after they have put you under? When did they take them out?

Had a catheter put in after I was under. Not sure what a NG tube is. Catheter was removed the day after surgery.


How did you feel when you first woke up? Was there a lot of pain, or were you sufficiently drugged up?

I was sore when I woke up, but they gave me morphene until I told them I felt better. I was only really sore for a few moments because they were pumping me with pain meds right away.

How was your pain managed? Was it effective?

I requested Dilaudid because it removed all my pain within moments. It works wonders for me. It makes you feel a rush and crampy for a second or two, but then all pain was gone. 


Did you have an epidural? Would you do it/not do it again?

Did not have an epidural with this surgery, but did for a C-section. It was no biggie.

How long did you have to stay in bed? Did you sleep a lot, or were you awake most of the day?

I couldn't walk until the next day because of the catheter. I slept a lot and was in the hospital for 7 days. It took me a while to heal, I didn't feel significantly better until about 9 days after surgery.


When did you first eat/drink?

I was allowed to swipe my mouth with water and a swab after the surgery. I was given ice chips the second day, and was put on liquids after my first BM on the third day.


When did you go back to eating normal food?

about 5 days after surgery I was eating normal food without any problems.


Do they always put a drain in, or only in certain cases?

The drain was what made me most uncomfortable. They kept pumping liquids through my veins and I had to pee a lot in the days after surgery. Every time I got up the drain would drive me crazy. I accidentally tugged on it a bunch of times. It didn't hurt when they pulled it out though. I thought it would, but it didn't.


How many incisions did you have (for laproscopic surgery)? How big were the incisions?

one incision about the length of a middle finger, and two little incisions for tubes they put in during surgery. Tube incisions were the length of a fingernail.

I had my gallbladder removed laproscopically. How much worse is a resection?

No clue.

Also, when I had my gallbladder out, they put a super annoying "airbag" type device on my legs to prevent blood clots. Do they still do this?

I loved them. I got to wear them and I thought they were very relaxing, like a massage. I hear you either love or hate them.

How will this affect bowel movements? Does the body adjust to not having the ileocecal valve and go back to normal BMs?

I had the right side of my colon removed. about a foot of it. I had loose bowels for about a week and then they became more solid.

The prep day instructions say I can have cranberry juice and grape juice. Is that rigIht? I always thought you probably had to avoid red/purple type drinks when doing a clean out for bowel surgery.

I was allowed red jello and cranberry juice too. The surgeon said that in actually surgery he wouldn't confuse it with blood, like he would with a colonoscopy.

When can you take pills again? I take Effexor, and if I miss a dose, I feel incredibly weird (withdrawal I guess). I'm worried how I'll feel if I have to miss multiple pills.

I assume you can take pills after you can take water.

Do you have any helpful suggestions for getting through all of this as smoothly as possible?

I took cherry citrate of magnessium for the clean out phase. It tasted much better than the phosphate drink that I use during colonoscopy prep. Enjoy the relaxing period in the hospital. Let them take care of you, and eat your favorite meal a few days before surgery because you'll crave it once you can't eat. :) Good Luck! Keep us posted.

Posted 9/9/2009 6:57 PM (GMT 0)
Had a resection, but it wasn't lapro - Here are my answers - Good luck!

Do they put the NG tube and urinary catheter in after they have put you under? When did they take them out? mine was after I was asleep.
My NG tube was to come out about 3 days after, but I was told if I got sick it would go back in. I told the doc there was not enough staff in that hospital to hold me down while he put it back in if I was awake. So, he clamped it off & it wasn't working, but left it in for a couple more days just to make sure. Don't really remember about the cath - maybe 4 days. Pleae note I was realy sick and weak before my surgery so mine could have been a little longer than most.
My mom had a resection and she did not have a NG tube after surgery.

How did you feel when you first woke up? Was there a lot of pain, or were you sufficiently drugged up?
I felt like a new person - all my previous pain was gone. Best hting I ever did! I was drugged, but not lots.

How was your pain managed? Was it effective?
Morphine pump - love it! I did not need to use it too much beyond what it gives you.
One I was home I had Percoset pills.

Did you have an epidural? Would you do it/not do it again?
Nope.

How long did you have to stay in bed? Did you sleep a lot, or were you awake most of the day?
about 3 days - They like you up and oving to work out hte soreness, which should not be as bad with lapro surgery.

When did you first eat/drink?
After about 3-4 days - After the NG tube was gone.

When did you go back to eating normal food?
Slowly - Chick was my friend for awhile.

Do they always put a drain in, or only in certain cases?
Not always - I had three, BUT I had an abscess too so they wanted to get all that infection out. My mom had a resection and she did not have any drains.

How many incisions did you have (for laproscopic surgery)? How big were the incisions?
Mine was a cut - down from navel to hair line.

I had my gallbladder removed laproscopically. How much worse is a resection?

Also, when I had my gallbladder out, they put a super annoying "airbag" type device on my legs to prevent blood clots. Do they still do this?
Yep - had these. It is becasue you are laying and not moving and blood clots form so easy when you are not moving. They are a pain, but I guess they do the trick.

How will this affect bowel movements? Does the body adjust to not having the ileocecal valve and go back to normal BMs?
I am not sure about hte valve itself being gone - sorry.

The prep day instructions say I can have cranberry juice and grape juice. Is that right? I always thought you probably had to avoid red/purple type drinks when doing a clean out for bowel surgery.
I was told to avoid red stuff..... Maybe it is different with lapro surgery.

When can you take pills again? I take Effexor, and if I miss a dose, I feel incredibly weird (withdrawal I guess). I'm worried how I'll feel if I have to miss multiple pills.
I think I went about a month with no meds then started mine again. My mom went for about 4 months before they started her back on anything. My body seemed to be fine with this and there was no problems adjusting back to meds or really being off them.

Do you have any helpful suggestions for getting through all of this as smoothly as possible?
My advice is to have a small pillow with you. Again, this might be different with lapro surgery, but I think I used my little pillow even with my gallbladder surgery too. Hold this pillow on your stomach when getinng up and down. The small amount of pressure helps with the pain of moving those muscles when getting around.
Posted 9/9/2009 11:03 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you bachi and meshice! I don't know why, but the more stories I hear, the more comfortable I feel about this.

From what a couple of other people told me too, it sounds like I may get lucky and escape the NG tube. That would be one less annoying discomfort to deal with!
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