Reversal Prep/Loop Ileostomy

Hi speech2014,

I just had my loop ileo reversal 9 days ago. They took 8 inches of my colon to remove endometriosis. A week later I had a leak at the anastomosis and had emergency surgery and temp ileostomy. I had my ileo for 5 months. For my prep I was just told to eat a light dinner the day before surgery and then nothing after midnight. Didn't have to have the magnesium citrate. By the time I went to the hospital at noon the next day I had no output in the bag.

For the surgery they just cut around the stoma and closed the loop. I still have a small opening where the stoma was (this is to allow drainage and prevent infection) and a stitch that acts like a purse string to tighten the hole, which will eventually close on its own.

I was in the hospital for a week because, after what happened to me with my resection, I wanted to make sure I had a bowel movement before I went home. That took a week.

I would make sure you have adult diapers on hand. I was encouraged last night because I had a nice 'normal' pooh - I even high fived my husband :) - but then all hell broke loose (literally). I was up every few minutes between midnight and 4am and was thankful for the Depends. I hope it gets better soon....

I have also been using Calmoseptine cream which I find has been really soothing.

One thing I wish I had at the hospital was cough drops. I found it very dry and if I had a dry cough in the night, it hurt my incision a little.

Good luck with the surgery. I found it to be much easier than the previous surgeries. I felt pretty good after and would have been home much sooner if things had been working. And, if it weren't for the fact that I have to be very close to the bathroom, I would be ready to be out and getting on with my life.

I don't think you need to take the mag cit. Check with someone who knows - are you sure it's surgeons orders?. Sometimes they send out 'bowel prep' as a matter of course to anyone going in for bowel surgery. I recently had to do 'prep' for an ileoscopy and it was a joke.. after 200ml of the drink my output was running clear and I then had to stay on clear liquids until the following day. My surgeon told me afterwards I hadn't needed to do that and they needed to review procedures. For my more recent op, I had a small bowl of soup at 6pm and then tea, boiled sweets and sports drink up until midnight. No prep at all. by morning my bag was empty.

At the very least - and esp if you do have to do the mag cit - drink some sports drink with electrolytes as the 'last drink' you can have the night before which will help your recovery.

After my first reversal I didn't have loose BM's at all.. quite the opposite. We're all different. Just take it super easy on the eating front and build up very gradually.

Good luck - keep us posted.

My surgeon said I should have the ileo for at least 3 months. I'm not sure why but he said it would be better to wait that long before the reversal was done. It wasn't to let the leak in my colon heal because that was healed after a month. It ended up being 5 months just because that's when I was able to get a date for the surgery. The wait was very frustrating and I only found out a week before that I was having the surgery.

Was so happy when I finally got the date. I got into the trap of kind of putting my life on hold waiting for surgery because I knew my situation was temporary. I've been off work, haven't travelled, etc. because I've been waiting for surgery. They told me I would have the ileo for 3 to 6 months so I've been anticipating the reversal since the day they gave me the ileo.

When I was having the initial bowel resection (before I knew I would end up with the ileo) the surgeon said it could be several months before my bowel function returned to normal. When I got the ileo he said at least I wouldn't have to deal with that. So....I'm not sure what the expectation is after reversal in my case. I didn't expect my bowel would say "welcome back" after being out of commission for so long. I expected a big F-you. Just hope it gets over it soon :)

Things seem to be a bit inconsistent. I'll go a whole day without a BM, have a relatively normal one and then seem to have issues for a few hours. I'm hoping it's just taking my body some time to adjust. I was on clear fluids for several days in the hospital, it took several days to get things moving and they gave me a lot of stool softeners and laxatives. I'm hoping once my body gets used to eating again things will settle down. Today I've been sticking to the BRAT diet - Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast - and so far that seems to be helping. The slice of pizza I had the first night I was home probably didn't help my cause LOL. But it tasted so good.....

My story is similar. A week after my resection I started to bleed. I didn't have any pain and almost decided to stay home. Thank goodness my husband forced me to go to the ER. When I got there my fever was over 40 and they said I had stool leaking into my abdomen. I was in surgery within a couple hours and woke up with the ileostomy. They told me before the surgery I would have the ileo when I woke up. When I had the initial resection they told me a colostomy might be necessary and they marked me for it but I was relieved when I woke up without it.

I was starving after surgery and I never want to eat broth or jello again. It got to the point where I couldn't do it anymore - the smell of the broth made me want to vomit. They actually advance my diet the day after the surgery but because my bowel wasn't waking up they didn't want to push it so they put me back to fluids.

You haven't ventured out for seven weeks? I got somewhat used to the ileo and would go out and do things, but I was reluctant to put myself in situations that I couldn't leave if I had to. I was pretty lucky because I rarely had leaks, but it was still something I thought about constantly.

You're right - everybody's situation and perspective is different. For many people getting the ileo is what actually allows them to get on with their life. But, like you, I'm happy to have the reversal.

Good luck with your surgery tomorrow. Keep us posted about how it goes.

I'm getting my surgeries Monday too. I drank the whole bottle of Mg Citrate, but as directed, sipped it and drank Gatorade along with it.

I wish I was running clear! I hardly ate anything yesterday and still not clear.

I couldn't find any without saccharin, so I'm running a little tachycardia right now.

Hi Speech and Alice,
how are you two post surgery? Hope you both are doing good and wishing you speedy recovery.
XX

Thats great news though. I am so glad you had a successful reversal. Keep us posted. Hope the runs will end soon and normal will return.