Colonic Inertia Questions

I just had a total colectomy for colonic inertia a week ago today..... i have fought with horrible constipation/diarrhea my whole adult life.. the only thing that finally made me go to a doctor was that it changed from going once every  7 days to once a month.. and it lasted for 5 months....... i was on ( and still am right now) a drug called amitiza they gave that to me when zelnorm went off the market... helped a lot .. but two years later... not that i wasnt going but by colon would clog ( as how i describe it) and you could visually see it bulge out of the skin ..... eventually i was having to do citrate of magnesium every week to keep it clear from clogging or to unclog it.... so they ran many many tests on me though i have had two colonscopies... they did a sitz marker study , anal mamometry study ( sorry i know my spelling is way off on that one) and failed almost every drug on the market for constipation and slow bowel...... my doctor figured out thru the test spring time this year.. that i had a motility problem... which unfortunately for me involves my stomach  and large intestine... they think the small could be involved but unsure at this point..... i was finally sent to a colorectal surgeon for a consult in early december and the surgery was decided for last week.... only because i am facing a 2 level lumbar fusion and they knew that it would be a year out if they didnt do it now..... so i had a total colectomy because none of my large intestine was working... the also do subtotal to just remove parts of the intestine that arent working.... and they thru the sitz markers and various other tests can decide which areas arent working and than you would consult with your gastro and then if decided a colorectal surgeon...

i cant say yet how this will or will not make my life better ... i was only give a little better than a 50 chance this would help because of the other motility issues and gastroparesis i have..... but she did say if my problem was large intestine alone and not an entire motility problem... they see 80 - 90 percent success with removing all or part of the colon .......

so i think you need to go for further testing .... more in the motility side of gastrointestinal problems.... it was a long time before someone finally gave me that word.. all i was ever told was constipation or irritable bowel... and i kept saying ... look i dont see anyone else at holidays or in restaurants or in stores going thru what i go thru... doubling over.... etc. etc........ so the amitiza was a huge help to get it all going... and my colorectal or gastro will decide after my healing phase of this whether i still need it because of the small intestine .... but it helps liquify what is in the large intestine making it easier to pass... so i took one of those a day and one sennokot.... but you should be looking at more motility testing especially that sitz marker study......  which is no big deal..... more time spent driving to and from the xrays than anything else......

if i can help with anything else let me know

I wish i had found this site before my surgery.... i had lived with this for so long.. had no idea any of the things i have learned in the last 6 months... as soon as my doctor got off of IBS and moved onto motility issues.. everything changed...... but it was scarey not knowing anything before all of it.. and so anything i can tell ya to help i would be happy to do.....

my surgery was last tuesday - (30th) the surgery lasted about 4.5 hours she said it was longer than she expected because i was tiny... whatever that meant.. whether she had issues puttin me all back together or whatever she said it went about an hour over what she thought.... i was sent home friday afternoon.....  so three nights.... i was torn i would of stayed another night... but i was so tired of the bs with the not sleeping, and every person that came in my room said something different.. yes you can have this drug, no you cant, yes can eat this, no you cant... i was ready to go home and just sleep........  i was given all liquid iv drugs... no pumps (that surprised me) .... the first night i was given quite a lot of pain meds.. and my blood pressure got down to 73 over 42 so they discontinued drugs until it came up... which pissed me off... cause they were giving me three different kinds... i was just like - could we just do one.... just one ... maybe not three.. and maybe my blood pressure would hold its own..... go figure ... after about 6 hrs of no drugs the night of my surgery... they came back and said oh.. lets try just using one pain killer....... i wanted to slap someone......... 

anyway.... i was on the cathedar for two days... i had to see the pa today as one of my incisions the glue came undone ( all my incisions were "superglued" as i called it) one came undone and was draining pretty bad so we called the oncall doctor over the weekend... and he said what we were doing was right.. but they wanted to check it for infection... all looked good, but they are did send me for a urine sample.. because i have not had the urge to pee - at all - since they took the cathedar out..... i started having liquid 'bm's' on thursday in the hospital.... it was horribly scarey and painful the first time... cause blood just poured out......... my night shift nurse said that was not good.... and then the day shift nurse came in and said that was perfectly normal.... the surgeon came in later and it must of been in my chart, because she reconfirmed that it was normal that there would be blood - in the beginning... but everything i eat goes right thru me then and still.... it is painful at times... and embarrasing most of the time.. because my intestine gets like air bubbles in it and just makes all this horrible noise.... and i wont lie you sometimes just go in the bathroom thinking you have to go but its just air/gas .... unfortunately i was told that that would probably not change...... nor the food passing right thru me......i would say at this point i have probably 10 liquid 'bm's" a day so far... and i pee maybe twice if im lucky!

i have a diet i have to follow the next month... and limitations she said i will probably always have with my diet... but i do with the gastroparesis also....so not a real big deal with that .

if you  - like myself have a bigger motility problem... know that this isnt the fix all for everything.. they keep telling me that over and over again.... this will take care of nothing with our small bowel or our stomachs... i worry where this will go if this proves the small is part of the problem... but right now need to heal this one and let the doctors do their thing

i still take amitiza ( 1 per day), sennokot(2 per day)  and i have belladonna i take in the morning...

that may all change as i have the next two appts with the surgeon... but right now we are staying with what i was doing before the surgery!

if i can help more please feel free to post ...... 

tcr

i had a lap done....... she had told me three or four nights in the hospital......

the gas the food moving thru... from what i took today from my appt... it lasts ... but they work with you via i was told by the surgeon immodium or laxative... to slow or speed up whatever your problem is... but she did say today if i have a small bowel motility problem... that this could last ..... a long time.... hopefully her long time and mine mean something different...... but my surgeon warned she has patients that have had there surgery years ago ( lap surgery - total ) that have up to 15 liquid bm's a day..... so hopefully it will get better as time goes... im so swollen and black and blue right now hurt right now.. the intestinal gas and diarrhea is just aggreviating it right now.....

i hope your testing goes well and i am curious as to the small bowel motility things... how they test for that.. and what if your found to have it... then what!???

please keep me up to date on how you are doing.... and i will continue to read and post here  for information too and a place to feel sane with all these problems....

tcr

Im surprised you are taking zelnorm - that was pulled off the marker quite a while ago..... i took that and they switched me to amitiza when it was removed from the market... i take amitiza and sennokot everyday - he even started me on colchicine ( which is a med for gout) my primary doctor thought that was very good on my gastros part to try this - he gave it to me because the primary side effect was diarrhea - and since i couldnt move anything thru my system we eventually ended up doing all these...... i would go something everyday.. but my intestines were still plugging up and pop"n" out ... you could see it when they clogged... and with the gastroparesis i couldnt move anything once it did that... so it got to where he wanted me to also do a bottle of citrate magnesium everyday. ( prep stuff)  .... if i had i probably wouldnt of bound the intestines up anymore - but i couldnt do it everyday - its worse than the potty runs i have now after the surgery..... i did the magnesium 2 bottles 1 day every week.....

i had to stop taking and doing everything when they did my sitz marker ( obviously all these drugs can affect the outcome of the test) along with anorectal mamometry i had done....

between the facts i failed all these tests.... it was getting that even with all these drugs couldnt they couldnt help me keep the intestines from slowing down... they moved rather quickly to set up that surgery in december ... met with the surgeon on the 17th had my surgery on the 30th........

healing slow..... i do understand what someone mentioned to me about a food journal.... some foods i go 20 times after i eat it  and some 3-4 .. i understand now my body is trying to tell me it cant digest it... and to stay away from that for a while..... later down the road you can reintroducing it... or it may just be something i cant eat anymore.... there was so much i couldnt eat before the surgery... im just hoping we have made it better enough to have something of a variety now..... for about 6 months i had to stay to very very soft foods..... and very little quantities of them

your taking a lot for pain... which slows the bowel down.. so that doesnt help,.. but with that said all the stuff you have tried makes me think you do have similar problems as to what i did.... i had been working with a doctor 2.5 years ... but unfortunatly the last 6 months the cycle has spun out of control... they were pluggine every week... i could see it.. my husband could see it.. i failed all the tests run.... he suggestsed in november for me to see a colorectal surgeon.. and of course it takes forever to get in to see a new doctor.. so i finally got in dec. 17th.. she was honest with me.. because of my gastroparesis - and the possiblity i may have a small bowel motility problem... she only gave me 50% success for this surgery..... for me.. i had to try something... i was at a point i couldnt eat anything but rice/soup...... which is really what im back to now.... it is the two things i get the least amount of pottie runs with...... surgeon told me today... intestines need about 6 months to level out and then i will know if it works for me or not..... the other rush for this was the fact i have to go in for a double lumbar fusion and i was afraid of how bad the narcotics would be with intestinal problems... so i pushed more for the intestinal issues to be addressed first and the back will be done when i have healed and gotten the colorectal surgeons blessing....

i have been out the last two days... my surgery was 15 days ago.... i did the grocery store/ and little errands yesterday - had to cut it short because i could feel the need to be near a bathroom for a while... not just a one time thing...... and today i drove out to the surgeon and to visit my mother for a bit... i get sore... and tired... but its only been two weeks... and the insides have been thru some stuff... so im in no hurry to push it... but if i could of gone out the last two weeks - would I of??/ probably not... i have been pretty tight with the bathroom since ive been home..... its been a bit better since backing off eatting like regular people do and eatting the way i use to.... i suppose with the gastroparesis - i am a little different in what some people can do in there recovery..... but at the end = its all comin out anyway... so doesnt really matter........