BMS after colectomy!?

Hi Adviceseeker,

My plan sounds close to yours. He's taking out everything but about four to six inches. He said that will keep me from having multiple loose BM's a day. I'll be having it done by the same doctor that did my resection. He said the tricky part will be that he usually does the anastomsis at the sigmoid, but that was removed during my first surgery. I also have to have stents put into my ureters (tubes that lead up to the kidneys) before the surgery.

Hi Adviseseeker - I know we've chatted before on the Total Colectomy thread.  So, how are you feeling post-op?  I sure hope better!!!

Your initinal question regarding minimal movements and them being pretty hard - Well, for me in the beginning, I was having several bm's a day and quite frankly very watery.  However, this has changed for me.  My surgery was 11-09-06 and beginning about two and a half months ago I slowed down to one bm every other day and they were quite hard as well.  I again began to feel that "not empty - bloated" feeling - I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, my surgeon ran some tests (CAT and a colonoscopy) to make sure there wasn't a problem where they connected the small intestine to the rectum.  All came out just fine, thank God, however, I did develop a few polyps with what very little colon that was left in so he now thinks my small intestine is lazy.  At this point in the game he has me taking MiraLAX daily (it can be bought OC now) and it does help, but I still don't quite feel "emptied" at times.  It is OK and will not hurt you to take stool softeners.  I take two everyday without fail and I think this may be beneficial to you as well.

I did question my surgeon that in the event that the MiraLAX stops working what would happen and he stated that he "could" remove the very little bit of colon that was left, however, it would be a last ditch thing for him to do, so there is that possibility.  I really don't know what or how this would affect me seeing he will only do it if he MUST.

You may also want to try adding some simple things to your diet that I've found works pretty good too.  Try drinking Mott's no sugar added apple juice and/or try eating some sugar free chocolate candy.  Oh, I also take magnesium capsules everyday too.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope your healing process is going well.

Oh, I also drink and have always drank a lot of water - so this is nothing new for me.

Adviceseeker:

Thanks so much for replying. Funny that you mentioned being a survivor. The doctor that I work for says to just take the same survivor attitude I've taken so many times before and that this surgery will also be fine. I'm kind of the joke (in a nice way) around the office - this will be surgery number 32 for me. Most of them were related to my breast cancer and knee surgeries, but there were others too. The joking part is because we've had a couple of the girls at the office go out to have their tonsils out and will stay on disability for three weeks or more. Then when they come back they complain how tired they are and that the anesthesia messed with their brain cells. All of my surgeries have been under a general, so I shouldn't have ANY brain cells by this point! LOL

My first resection was done because of recurrent diverticulitis and I had formed two fistulas from the colon to my bladder. Nothing like being able to do #1 and #2 at the same time. Blech! Before I had that surgery I had no problems with BM's; it started after the surgery. At first I thought it was 'normal', but after a while realized that something wasn't right. That's when the barrage of drugs, mineral oil, senna products, MOM, etc., started.

I wish I could have already had the surgery, but the surgeon won't do it until he's going to be home/available for a straight eight-week period. He's also going to give me his home/cell phone number. It was going to be at the end of July, but something came up so he wanted to do it at the end of August. Problem with that is that we live in a small town that has an annual Fall Festival each year during Labor Day weekend and I'm the treasurer; so I moved it to after Labor Day. The plan was then for September 5, but he has a conference on the 7th so it is now scheduled for the 10th. The 10th will work out to be perfect. I'm also invoved with the Portuguese Festa in the town next to us. If the surgery was on the 5th I wouldn't have been able to help, but with it being on the 10th I'll be able to.

Okay - I'm done with my book now. haha

adviceseeker said...
HI irish,

It sounds very complicated, but i m sure after all you ve gone through you will be on two feet in no time! I ve seen some posts of yours from before, you are quite a survivor!!
Somoeone told me that she had to have a second surgery to remove more since the first was not successfull..

I m not very hopefull especially since already now it s not great!

Anyone had to have a second surgery?

ps I drink at least 2 liters a day and still..

Thanks for the sweet reply. You have given me a lot of insight as to what I'll experience when I have this surgery. I hope you're doing well now. I always worry about my son having to have something like this done eventually due to his Crohn's and UC. So far he has done okay and can stay in remission for long periods of time. He usually has the most problems when it's around finals at school.

My PCP, which is also my boss, has also helped me with a lot of decisons regarding having the surgery done. This man saved my life with regards to the breast cancer, so I take whatever he says into consideration. We send a lot of patients to the surgeon that I'll be going to. I always kid around with Dr. K (the surgeon) and tell him that he has to take good care of me so Dr. I (PCP) doesn't get mad. Whenever we have an older patient that comes in with abominal pain that turns out to be due to constipation, we refer to them as being FOS (full of you know what). So guess what? That's how I sign my notes to the doctor - FOS. He just went on vacation and we got nametags while he was gone. As a joke mine says FOS.

Stuck/Robin

I'll have to change my name tag to my real name after the doctor sees it; otherwise, we'll have patients asking to speak to Fos. LOL  Living in a small town, the majority of patients know my real name and would probably ask me why it says Fos. The other funny thing is that if someone stinks up the bathroom, they can't blame it on me!

Right now the main issues with my son is that he's tired all the time. He could sleep for 18 hours if I'd let him. He's home for the summer but will then be heading back to college in the fall. I always worry about him not getting up in time for school/work, but he does get up when his alarm goes off. We've had his B12 level checked and it's fine, but I'm thinking about having him try sublingual B12 to see if it helps. I have pernicious anemia and get B12 shots every two weeks.

You're right about placing trust in God. God and my family is what has got me through everything else; that and a good sense of humor of course.