Sub-total colectomy on the 20th!!!!

Hello my Healing Well friends . I will be undergoing a sub-total colectomy for colonic inertia on the 20th of this month and am not a little nervous . The surgeon said he will remove all of the large bowel, except the sigmoid portion and rectum, and reconnect the small bowel to it. I should be in the hospital 5 to 7 days. I've fought depression and anxiety for the past 25 years, I hope this surgery won't knock me down (mentally) too much.

I could sure use some prayers. I'm really a coward when it comes to pain, but I'm praying the outcome will be worth it. 

Thank you, and God bless all here.

                        Tom

Hi Marsky . Thanks for the tips, I appreciate it very much. I will try to keep moving as much as possible and buy myself some good slippers and a robe. I don't want my heinie hanging out while walking around the hospital .

It sounds like you've had your share of health troubles. I hope all is well concerning the colon cancer. I was in for a total thyroidectomy in 2004 for thyroid cancer. Six years and still doing well. I guess we just do what we have to do and leave the rest in God's hands.  I can talk brave now, I didn't have the operation yet. Even though I'm trusting God for the outcome, I'm sure I'll complain and whine like a baby after. Hey, I'm a man, we need to get sympathy whenever we can .

God bless!!!!

                                      Tom

Thanks for the helpful tips, Marsky. I will definitely follow your advice. I was originally thinking of laying as still as possible after the operation, but now I know that's the worst thing I can do. I hope the pain medication enables me to move around more freely. I want to be pain free, but not zonked out so much that I don't want to move.

Thanks again for all the helpful input, I greatly appreciate it.  I will post my progress on here.

God bless.

                                              Tom

Many thanks to Mary, Dave, and Indigo NT, I'm doing much better. I'm getting my dog out for regular walks now and feeling stronger. I was in the hospital for 11 days because my bowel was giving me trouble starting up again. I didn't do too bad with the pain of the actual surgery, but I was awful sick with vomiting tons of bile and feeling weak as water. Even when I got home it was a stuggle to even take a shower. By the time I showered and toweled myself off, I felt like I ran a marathon. I was really out of breath. And I also alternated between sweating and feeling freezing cold. It also knocked me down some mentally also. I had a lot of strange dreams and just didn't feel like myself. I'm still not up to par, but I'm getting better, thank God .

I've had years of putting up with depression and anxiety, years of terrible bowel problems. I had a total thyroidectomy for thyroid cancer in 2004, and now this surgery. Don't ever say you can't do it, because you can!!!! I know there's rules on here about overtly expressing one's religious beliefs, but I just have to say that without the Lord's help, I don't know where I'd be. That wasn't too overt, was it???

God bless all my friends here, I can really sympathize with what you're going through.

 

 

                                            Tom

Tom... Glad to here you're doing so well. Your inner stregnth and faith will get you through anything... im in awe of your outlook. Wishing you continued recuperation.

Marsky, as you know i'm quite new here, but i have to say i look forward to your positve, informed and often humerous posts... Keep it up!!!
I'll tell you about my dream i had after surgery sometime... It involved Pygmys, a step ladder and some light bulbs!!!

I appreciate all of you guys and gals here, this is a great forum. You are so right about the dreams, Mary. I would wake up and think "how in the world did my brain put that dream together"!!!! They were bizzare to say the least. I think you're right about the meds causing a lot of the weird dreams. I was not only on the pain killers, but I wasn't receiving my Effexor and Klonopin on a regular basis as I should have. With my bowels not starting up for a while, and having all of that bile and vomiting, I don't think my meds were absorbing. I think I had withdrawl from the lack of Effexor and Klonopin absorbing. I think all of that on top of a big operation makes for some out of this world dreams .

God bless, my friends. I hope all are doing well tonight.

                                Tom

Tom, glad things have worked out okay for you and wish you a speedy recovery.

Was your colectomy because of IBS? This is the first time I have been on the IBS forum and this is the first post I have seen. I have Crohn's disease. I had a colonoscopy on thursday wich showed my crohns in full remission. The GI doc told me I also have IBS because I still suffer from Bloating, gas, pain and potty troubles even though crohns is clear right now. I didnt know that IBS could cause damage too! Oh no!

Whew! Thought I'd jumped from the fire to the frying pan! lol...I'm sorry you had to go through that...I'm glad you are doing ok. It must be a relief to not be constipated anymore! Ive had cronic potty problems all my life too, it sucks! Thanks for answerng my question! :)

Tom - are you continuing to recover well? Or at least I hope you are!

Edit - oops, I see that you updated us on your recovery several posts before this one. Glad you are doing well! Happy Holidays....

Tom,you have to click on the little square with a 1 or a 0 at the upper rigth of the screen.

Hey there G20. I know you had bad constipation from colonic inertia, but when you did have bowel movements, did they ever feel weak and incomplete? Like you couldn't squeeze all the stuff out?

Chakra123 - not sure what 3 cm is compared to what I have left but my surgeon said I have only 10% left of my sigmoid. I feel like my life has never, ever been the same since my surgery. Been at this for almost 12 years now. I have trouble if I eat solids, and since well you can't live on liquids for the rest of your life, hence why I in particular have a lot of trouble. Turns out the sigmoid is very, very important in hopes of returning to normal bowel control. In laymen's terms, the sigmoid is the GI tract's reservoir, this part of the body can swell and hold back stool, ideally released once or twice a day. I go all day long, as long as I continue to eat solids.

Once my surgeon (newer doctor assigned to my case, original surgeon moved out of town) showed me a diagram of what a normal GI tract and Sigmoid looks like and then on paper drew what my new sigmoid looks like, it hadn't hit me why I have this much trouble (multiple bm's all day, often like a newborn baby I often joke). So that day I was a mess. I grieved for my old colon and sigmoid. Sounds wacky to admit but I honestly think I needed a good cry that day and I cried, in the parking garage, on the way home, while home. After oh a day or two of this, I decided to make the best of my situation. My old sigmoid wasn't going to grow back and the new colon pulled down attached to my rectum couldn't swell like the old sigmoid could, so there was no use in trying to hope for my old one or two bm's per day.

The day I decided to make my situation as good as it can be, really was a turning point for me.

Was it easy? No, not by a long shot. Oh I still cried, and had low days but overall I gave up that dream of returning to my normal colon days. They are literally gone forever. Once I realized I could control this somewhat (low residue diet, small portions, timing of meals, organic yogurt, probiotic, stool softener, etc.) and keep the stool formed (easily passed anywhere, public bathrooms, hotels, even portalets, yes I have gone in them) most of the time, I did okay. Better than okay actually.

I am hoping you reach this point too - I sometimes think we need to hit a really low spot - depression - before we can climb out of it and turn things around (diet, attitude, etc.).

I should add that we also decided to get a dog (a Golden) and she became my beloved "therapy" dog, although I didn't need one. She was glued to my side for almost 11 years (we lost her last month to cancer, oh how I miss her terribly). Might I suggest a pet? Pets can be very therapeutic.

Wishing you my best (and all of us, hope you're continuing to do well G20/Tom!).

Mary/Marsky