after ileostomy leakage in rectum - close the bottom.

Renee, I had my rectum and anus removed when I had my colon removed, and then had everything sewn shut. There are others here who have had the surgeries separately, and they can tell you about that. I was initially pretty surprised about having things sewn shut, and I have had some complications associated w/the wound (although, as you say, nothing compared w/IBD). Otherwise, it's weird, but not that weird .... people call it a "Barbie butt." When it heals it looks pretty normal except no hole.

Some folks do keep their anus, and then they have to deal with mucous, as it still produces, but it is something people can live with. I'm not sure about keeping in diseased rectum for the long haul, though -- you would need to get scoped periodically and would have a high cancer risk (if you've had IBD for over 10 years, the risk is over 30%, and my gi said that for me it was likely more like 50% due to the amount of inflammation I'd had over the years). So, you might want to consider the surgery just for peace of mind with the cancer risk....

Glad you are doing well w/your ostomy!

Salamore..

A friend of mine had her's sown shut when she got her ileostomy. She loves it and laughs about it. I figured eveyone else answered your real question but thought I would let you know another woman out there had this done and is VERY happy with everything.

Jen S

Renee, I feel like I would be a bit remiss to not mention that the butt wound can be hard to heal. For most people, it heals up fine, but when there are complications, it's just in a very unfortunate place.

I was one of the unlucky ones, and I don't want to scare you, as what happened to me was on the extreme end, but after 7 months I needed another surgery to clean up and have a plastic surgeon close the wound, followed by 3 months of bed rest to stay off of it, and now, 16 months after my first surgery, it's still open just a tiny bit.

The tiny wound is not that debilitating now -- I just need to sit on an inflatable pillow and can't sit in hard chairs for too long (and wouldn't be able to, say, ride a bicycle). I put a dressing on it every day, and am careful to clean it. Otherwise I can swim and go about the rest of my life.

I had no idea before this happened to me that a wound could take so long to heal..... still, it's nothing compared to having IBD symptoms all the time....

     I think I am the only one in here whose surgeon left the anus intact.  I have no idea why he did that because my rectum and colon are gone and he told me my rectum was badly diseased.  I did develop a hematoma inside the anus about a month post op and he drained it in his office   (thought I would go through the roof) and placed me on antibiotics.  If I had the anus sewn closed, he would have had to cut through the sutures, so, I suppose he had good reasoning to leave it open.  I have pesky skin tags outside the anus which are bothersome, but not precancerous.  I saw my surgeon a few weeks ago about them.  He said he could remove them, but I would have to have it done in the hospital under anesthesia AND it would be painful afterwards.  So, in the meantime, I just use a hemorrhoid ointment and sometimes Calmoseptine.