50 days after comostomy and still pain

Maggie,

That seems like a long time to still be in pain. Have you told your surgeon about it yet?

your incision is still needing 4x4 dressing on it.........and what needs to be stitched up..? why is it not stitched up now.. i feel bad for you. hope you feel better soon. i read your story the other night and i felt bad that you had to go thru all that. have you told your doctor this time your runnnig a temp (low grade) and that your in pain. i know when they opened me up for my first surgery it made a cyst of mine grow very large and when you are opened it can make the smallest cyst just take off like wild fire i heard. and well mine did and 4 months later it was massive and burst and at that time it put a whole in my colon and there for a i had to have emergency surgery also but i go in soon enough that he just cleaned my insides up and put in drain tubes and NG tube (the worst) and stayed there a week. but i felt the cyst growing in there and it hurt some on and off. and i just felt like somthing wasnt right. and you could have another cyst growing in there. if they ultrasound your belly it would show them if that is the case. i am praying for you. where are you from?

Maggie, I could be mistaken, but when they leave an incision to heal without sutures/staples, it will stay that way until the scab is gone...they don't usually stitch it towards the end...and that is okay, I've had many of those and you just have to change the dressing less towards the end.

I would definitely call your doc, you shouldn't be running a temp and have all that pain.

Chassity,
You had major surgery and are still in pain, so you should call your doctor's office and ask for a refill. If you weren't in pain, you wouldn't need them, so don't worry. If it makes you feel better, you could ask them to call in a refill for a smaller amount, so you only get what you need, and there won't be any extras around.

As always, Thanks for your support guys!
I was in pain at work today, and they were questioning me about why I was still on pain meds. I said "Because I'm still in PAIN!"
they asked if I could just take tylenol? NO. this is way over tylenols head.
Then I started to feel even worse about still needing to take them. I do hate that I still need them.
Until I read your posts. You know more than anyone what I'm going through.
I know I'm just too hard on myself. I need more patience.

Sorry Kimlin to take over your thread.
How did your Dr.'s appt. go today? What did they say about your incision?

Maggie - just wanted to say I'm thinking about you and wishing you much better days ahead.

Internal healing takes time. As I posted, I had 4 solid weeks of pain every day, every minute. Later I was told this was internal healing taking place. All I know is it was there, constantly. I could dull it with Tylenol but never really take it away.

By week 5 it began to subside. Didn't go away completely but there were hours when it was just - gone.

I think by week 6 or 7, I noticed longer pain free periods.

Time can be so hard to speed up. But time does ease the pain. Healing doesn't take place overnight, my surgeon said. This is why I say my colon surgery was much more painful than childbirth ever was! And I had thought nothing could be more painful than childbirth! Now, no matter what a doctor does to me, I just say - oh the absolute worst pain of my life has already happened, do what you have to do to me......they do smile and then reluctantly go about their work (whatever it is). LOL

Hang in there.....we are all here for you!

 Just a update on my pain..... goy severe sunday am so i went to the er where they took me right ib not like last time when i waited 4 3 and a half hours.....the dr who had saw me before remenbered my situation and sent me directly for c t scan that was after i drank the contrast stuff....Good News..........nothing showed up on my scan....they say the pain im feeling is normal pain...they gave me dimarol in my i v and i got relief and no pain...this am the pain and aches are here so i guess i have to quit rushing things and take this a day at a time......thanks for the advice and support......maggie

maggie - time can move very slowly when you want it to speed up. How well I remember this internal, 24/7, pain you are experiencing. My initial colon resection/cancer surgery, gall bladder removal, creation of a temporary colostomy, took almost 5 hours. My surgeon jokingly called me the Blue Plate Special of that surgical day. Had the impression there were interns looking in on the surgery too. Lovely. It was also implied that when colon surgeons have a challenging surgery such as mine (my tumor was very low in the colon), they open you up, lift out your intestines and lay them aside on your stomach, while they work "below". When the resection is complete and finished, they "pack" you back up and replace your small and large intestines the way they were lying before surgery began. They can't always get things exactly the way they were before surgery but usually they do. Also when a surgeon touches the intestines, they shut down. For days. Everyone kept telling me that your intestines hate to be messed with. This is why every single time a nurse came in my room, she/he listened for active, good bowel sounds. To make certain things were progressing as they should.

All of this manipulation wreaks havoc on your GI tract. The work must be done though. And you do recover.

But it takes a lot of time to heal and recover.

I know you want to rush this but time is the beast here. The best you can do now is keep walking every day (we eventually bought a treadmill for this purpose). Other exercise might be out, but slow, steady walking really does help get you back on the road to recovery. Good nutrition, vitamins, etc. too. Lots of water also (6 glasses a day is ideal).

And well, curse it if you want - but time - really does the trick.

Hang in there.....
Mary