This is my story.
I am a 51 year old female with an ileostomy.
On April 23, 2010 I got up that morning to nothing by hugh amounts of bloody diarrhea.
I went to the local hospital (where I am also employed). They drew blood, my counts was a little low but not to bad just then. The ER doctor who I did know decided to do a CT. While in CT I passed out. (Just what everyone wants to do in front of their co-workers.) They thought I had had a heart attack. They did more blood work. My blood was extremely low then because I had had another BM. The doctor said the CT showed I had a mass on my colon and that it was cancer. He said they called my surgeon and they were putting me in ICU and getting me ready for surgery. The surgeon come in to see me and assured me he would do all he could for me. The surgery was done so we waited for the pathology report which thank God come back I had UC, no cancer. I come home in 6 days.
May 9th Mothers Day my wound busted open, (it had been seeping). I went back to the hospital. They thought I had a wound infection. Turned out to be a fistula. Great, I get a central line and no food from May 14th till July 22nd. They tried the wound vac on me but for some reason it would not work for me. In the mean time I went back in for more bleeding and had more blood. Also again for pneumonia. The last time I was there my surgeon decided to send me somewhere else. Thank goodness he did. My new surgeon run test on me I never heard of. He did a c-scope and said that I DID NOT have UC. He said my colon was in terrible shape and would have to come out. He said he did not take out all of my colon so he did the ileostomy and told me that we could reverse it in a few months. That was on July 31st. I have been back to him and he tells me that he wants to do another c-scope to see what the colon that he left in looks like. If it looks good we will reverse it, if not then he will send me to another surgeon for something else.
I am really confused about all this. I did have the running to the bathroom all the time before. I couldn't eat if I was going to be going somewhere. Is that the way it will be again if I have it reversed or something else?. I don't want that. I am happy right now. It has taken me awhile to get to this point but I can do anything I want to right now. I can eat and travel. My biggest concern is having a leak now. But I have learned alot and as of last Thursday I have not had a leak in 4 weeks..I don't want to go back to the way things were. Can I just keep this ileostomy and live my life as I am now or is there something else I have to do to make it permanate?
Sorry if this is rambling but I just don't want to go backwards. I want to live without being tied to the restroom. Thanks for listenting.
Oh and by the way I did go back to work after 4 1/2 months and everyone was fantastic.
Pam