Total Colectomy Part 38

Thanks Val :)

Doing my clear liquids now. My dad and stepmom came into town last night and had the whole family over at their friends house for a big dinner. Glad I have the support of others in such a scary time.

I usually start my prep early as I'm always up until 3AM still dealing with the prep.

I'm taking my laptop with me so I'll try to update here.

Surgery starts at 1PM tomorrow!

Yes, I'm here in Atlanta.

Are they going to remove the hernia? Sorry about the mucus thing.

Praying for you Snuggle! It will be so worth it when it's all over with. I think you are doing the hard part now.

Val

Hiya Hoping

If your bowel is redundant and not functioning then the whole thing needs to come out - colonic inertia is not helped by removing segmental parts of the bowel (as per my own experience and my consultant who is top of his field in motility issues in London UK). It is the best option for a successful operation.  You will feel like new and if you have an ileostomy you will feel like new also  - either way why keep a sick bowel inside you. 

However if you dont have CI then good luck. x

Yes i understand - it is hard when you got all of opinions. I do hope it all works out for you definately. sorry but what does KWIM mean?

Sorry...it mean know what I mean

HopingForAnEnd, I posted pictures of my barium enema a few months back - sounds a lot like yours. My sigmoid was twisted and looped as well as my transverse colon. The X-ray doctor couldn't even get the barium through the colon because of the extreme redundancy!! I was on the table for twice as long as normal as he tilted and twisted in every angle in attempts to get it through. I had ALL but 4 markers in my colon during my sitz marker test, and my colon doctor didn't want to take the whole thing out, but took the entire sigmoid and upper rectum out. I do think my colon is still on the slower side, but is GREATLY improved. Stool now does reach the rectum, and I am so much better as far as digestion than I can ever remember. I do wish he took part of the transverse to help speed things up a little more, but I'm very happy I didn't have the whole thing removed. There are many here that just have more problems after the whole thing is out, I figure.. if things get bad again, I can always have more removed, but you can't put t back once it is out!

Update on me.. I had surgery again last week, this time the diagnose is a perineocele, which apparently is very uncommon. The reason for this surgery is my continuing struggle to eliminate my stool, it's just hard to get the stool out of the rectum, even though I can feel it is there, I just don't empty - very much like a rectocele, but the hernia is in the perineum area, my levator muscles are not attached. Surgery was pretty fast, and I feel good - except for the sore bottom. My doctor said that "this is it" it's all he can do, and if it doesn't work.. I don't know what my options will be. I'm not concerned for "now" but I do wonder what I will be like if I live for another 30 years. With this surgery, I am suppose to make my stools "watery diarrhea", and I've been taking miralax 3-4 times a day and MOM in the pill form.. and still never reached the watery stage!! I was told not to strain at all.. and find that still hard to do, so I can just "hope" things will work out for me.

Hi Hoping, I'll try and get the pictures back up and post for you to see.. they are really not normal! My signature isn't showing up but here is a recap of things:

Hi Hoping, I'll try and get the pictures back up and post for you to see.. they are really not normal! My signature isn't working for some reason, but here is my recent history:

- 2 C- Sections in early 80's.
-Stage lll Pelvic Floor Prolapse ( rectocele, rectal, vaginal, bladder) Rectopexy, Sacral Colpopexy, TVT Sling - 8+ hr surgery - March 2009
-Constipation increased, could not move bowels without excessive straining or laxatives - March 2009
-TVT Sling Released - April 2009
-Redundant, Twisted, Prolapsed colon found - causing mechanical obs- Dec 2009 Sub-Total Colectomy, 2nd Rectopexy, Vaginal repair of Rectocele, Hospital for 9 days, had fecal impaction post op.
-Pelvic Prolapse AGAIN, Colon surgeon remove suspension mesh to avoid erosion into rectum, Difficulty having BM, July 2010 another major surgery to redo sacral colopexy.
-Perineocle - levator muscle reconstruction in hopes to restore function, and TVT Sling redone

For my colon resection, it was open because they where concerned for the mesh (from previous sacral colopexy) AND they were redoing the rectopexy I had a few months prior and felt it would be better results. I won't lie, the first day was horrible, until they got my pain under control, afterwards, I did really well and I'm sure I would have been released earlier, except I couldn't have a BM and I couldn't leave until I did. Long story short.. my colon surgeon didn't require a bowel prep, and he was a jerk, and I never saw him afterwards into day 8 when I KNEW something was very wrong.. They loaded me up on mega doses of Miralax and Milk of Mag, and I still couldn't go... when I wiped, I felt hard stool and I was impacted. The surgeon said "he wasn't surprised, as my entire colon was full of golf ball size stool" duh! I really could have died, my anastomosis could have burst open, and for all I know - maybe this unimpacting hurt my rectocele/perineal repair..?? who knows. Once home, I recovered easy.. by 3 weeks I hardly even felt like I ever had surgery.. all and all it was an easy recovery. I'm able to eat whatever I want. I did stay on Miralax for several months post op, just t be safe.. but now I hardly use it much. There was a great chance that I would have to have a bag because of the previous surgeries, but I didn't! I was prepared, felt for it immediately after surgery.. and happy I didn't have to have one.

My pelvic floor muscles surprising work, so thankfully - I'm not dealing with that issue. For this past reconstructive surgery, they found good muscle and reattached it and secured it.. I can only hope it works, hard to determine if it is right now. BTW - my doctor does not like using mesh in the rectocele area or vaginal wall, and the mesh I have is from a sacral colopexy - which does attach to the vagina, but the risk for erosion and complications are much lower than if used for the rectocele. This past surgery - he did not want to use the mesh - but felt he might have to, but he thankfully found good strong tissue to use, soooooo.. hope it works. I'll try and get those pictures up this afternoon!

I made it through surgery. Yesterday I was still in a lot of pain. Today I'm having a lot of nausea. Still on clear liquids (or nothing). I'd love to take a shower, but it doesn't look like its in the cards for now.

I've been walking several times a day - even at 3:30AM last night. Not too much foot traffic. I'll probably try for another stroll here in a bit. My mom is eating dinner right now.

I received some beautiful flowers from friends and family. I have a lot of support right now and it feels so great.

Jenise...Thank you so much for posting the pics! WOW what a crazy colon! Mine looks like yours near the rectum area but my transverse looks different. Mine is all dilated so it doesn't hang. It is just kind of jumbled together in the top and ascending side. I met with the surgeon today and I should know the date of the surgery on Mon. He is concerned that my rectum isn't working so he can't say for sure whether this will work or not and that an illeostomy may still be needed. At least I want to try this first because once the colon is gone its gone.

You have been through so much! How is your pooping problems now?I can't believe you weren't able to go to the bathroom for that long after surgery! That is crazy! Doctors can be amazing! My hospital is 2 and a half hours away so he said to expect to be in there for 5-7 days. Not sure if a bag is needed. He won't know till he gets in there. Miralax doesn't work for me so I hope I am able to go. You must have felt miserable from all that stool being impacted! Thanks so much for speaking with me. I really appreciate it.

Allie -

I haven't been able to follow Lizzie's updates on a regular basis. She had colonic inertia, right? What surgery/surgeries has she had? I know she's had many complications.

Thanks.

I'll keep you in my prayers, Marisa. I can't imagine what it's like to have a child be ill when you have complications of your own.