Bowel movement and stool size change following PR

aymanio said...
Hello All,

I had RP surgery on March 24th. A month later, I had a major infection complication that has now been resolved.
I am now experiencing smaller size stools, all the time, with a feeling of bloating after lunch/dinner, gas, and some infrequent colon area pains.
My doctor tells me this is most likely related to the PR and the infection following, scared tissues (which can happen upto 6 months after surgery).
I also heard that RP can cause bowel movement disturbances, but most radiation does this.
I am of course worried about colon cancer. I have no other of the symptoms (fatigue, loss of appetite, bleeding, anal pains, weight loss, ...etc).
Any experience/feedback much appreciated.
Thanks
Ayman

If it is related to the infection, then you probably had a pretty whopping dose of antibiotics. Is that correct? Antibiotics not only kill the bad bad bugs, but the much needed good bugs in your body, leading to all sorts of possible complications. For some reason, doctors(in my experience) rarely mention this(if they even know it?) when prescribing antibiotics.

All of that may have nothing at all to do with what is actually causing your problems, but it well might. You might consider asking your doctor about taking pro-biotics and especially eating foods that are known to both contain proBs and feed the proBs your body has, so they can multiply. Just plain old yogurt helps a lot of folks, just make sure it says it contains live cultures. Ask your doctor. Good luck! Keep us posted!

Thanks guys for your feedback. Much appreciated. Yes, I was told that full recovery and deep healing could take up to 1 year. And yes, I took an awful lot of medecine.
I will stay cool, enjoy life and not worry. I think it's essential for speeding the recovery.

aymanio,

You might try one of the probiotic youhurts you can get at the grocery store -- something like Dannon's Activia. There have been a few studies suggesting it is helpful for the symptoms you describe. The results are of the sorta/kinda/sometimes/mostly variety but it is cheap to try, probably safe, something you can do while you wait to feel better, and the strawberry-peach and the berry-cherry flavors are tasty.