Adhesions and blockages after j-pouch surgery

Hi all,

I've been on the UC forum, but am now shifting to this one, since I no longer have UC! I had step 1 of 2 of the j-pouch surgery on May 27. I had a post-op ileus, so was in the hospital for 13 days instead of the original planned 5-6. I had severe distention and had to have an NG tube--it was awful. I finally was able to tolerate solid foods, so they sent me home.

Now, about 3 weeks post-op, I've developed a partial blockage due to adhesions, revealed in a CT scan yesterday. I can't eat anything solid without getting nauseous and am having a hard time staying hydrated (I also got some IV fluids yesterday), even though I drink fluids all day. We have moved up my takedown surgery by a week to July 1, and my surgeon says he'll lyse the adhesions at that time.

Has anyone had success with adhesion removal? I'm so discouraged--nothing seems to be going right. I'm trying to survive on Ensure and liquids right now, but I imagine I'll lose even more weight--I'm down to 97 lbs and am 5'7". I'm trying not to regret having the surgery in the first place, but I sort of had no other choice--meds did not work.

Adhesions are very common with abdominal surgeries and are to be expected; it seems that your adhesions are causing you problems...not all adhesions cause problems for the patient.

You also have the dreaded Loop Ileo. It's almost impossible to gain any weight when you have a loop ileo; when I had mine everything went right through me, I think that I lost about 25 lbs. I gained some of it back after the take-down.

Surgeons look for previous adheions during the take-down surgery and correct the adhesions when they find them.

I was skin and bones with my loop ileo and yeah bad skin breakdown. The loop is tough to manage. Once you have your takedown....after a few months time.....you will notice the weight going back on.

I will ask about trying Imodium (a slowing agent?)--good idea. Yes, I'm using Coloplast convex wafers that they gave me at the hospital. They've actually done a good job at sealing--I've had fewer leaks than I expected. I think I need to change more often, though, to help manage the skin.

I used to take immodium with my loop ileo and it really didn't do anything at all for me. With my end ileo, and even now with my jpouch, it tends to really help as far as firming things up in a sense.

I had tons of adhesions after my first surgery, and while they didn't cause any blockage issues (that I was aware of), they were still so bad that my second surgery took over three hours longer than expected so that my surgeon could work around and get rid of them as much as possible. When I went in for my takedown most of them hadn't reformed, and as far as I can tell now (since I don't have any real blockage or discomfort issues post takedown) if any have formed or reformed they're not causing any major issues.