abdominal abscess and drainage months after Ileostomy emergency surgery

My husband had emergency surgery for UC caused toxic mega colon and had perforated his colon last Nov, developed septic shock etc. After many complications and a 70 day hospital stay he has been home since mid January. He developed an abdominal abscess a couple of weeks after surgery, they drained it percutaneously from and area on his left flank (back). Three times it has been drained proven collapsed by CT and has returned. The last time was April. they have had a drain in since April and even though the abscess is gone now there is still drainage of about 30 cc every day. When it is cultured it shows normal gut flora. Surgeon suspected a fistula and has done a sinogram 4 times. All show no communication with the bowel. We wondered if maybe there was a bit of gauze or sponge left in his causing the abscess but they cannot see anything on CT. The surgeon is now suggesting exploratory surgery for the reason she thinks there could be a pin hole perf in in small colon but she admits she is just guessing. Radiologist thought the discharge looked like lymph fluid and tried to talk the surgeon into left her treat it as such, the surgeon would not agree.

Does anyone have eny experience or knowledge that could help us? Lymph drainage what is that all about? Abscess after perf gut?

He is doing quite well finally gained some weight, appetite is improved, white blood count normal. Leaning to live with ileostomy however clothing is an issue and I will be back with a question about that, the stoma is right where his belt would be. He is 58 and in perfect health until last Oct when he developed a bout of UC that turned very bad very fast.

thank you

thank you. We are not sure why she choose that site, because it happened so fast no one asked him and we didnt know enough to say. For men where do they usually locate the stoma?

Thank you. So how does a man deal with the belt and waistband on jeans etc? Right now he is wearing 36 inch waist and he is about a 33inch to avoid pressure on the stoma/bag and also his scare tissue is still tender. He is using suspenders, never worn them his life before but cant figure out the clothing for this?

He wasnt able to be stiched up because of all the sepis and infection, it hs healed really well but the scare is about 3 inches wide and still very new skin.

I am a 62 year old female who had a total colectomy 5 years ago for a rectal cancer. I have an iliostomy working great. I have had unexplained vaginal drainage off and on since the surgery. I have had drains put in 2 times to drain out a fluid collection behind the vaginal wall. I now have a lower abdominal abscess that is draining vaginally it was cultured as normal vaginal flora. A wek ago a drain was tried to put in and the doctor could not penetrate the fluid collection under ct guidance. I am waiting to have it done. My surgeon wants to do this procedure with a follow up fistula gram after wearing the drain for 2 weeks. He is sure by handling it this way it will make it easier for him to locate the source of the fluid. Has anyone experienced this problem? It has been 5 years post op, but the vaginal draining really has never stopped all together

Post Edited (Nonnielupe) : 1/14/2013 6:08:56 AM (GMT-7)