What can we expect after my wife has colon surgery?
To remove about a foot of it because of a benign tumor.
Tagged with: benign tumor
Filed under: Surgery
Power Colon Cleanse – Free Trial
Top Commentators
Denisedds (88)
-
Go with the second answer. If it is open surgery, she will need to be in hospital for about 10 days. If it is laproscopic / keyhole, then it will be about a week. Depending on where it is, and if it is necessary, she may have a stoma. This can be temporary or permanent. Whilst it is very hard to get used to at first, once you learn, it becomes like brushing your teeth!
Straight after the surgery she won’t be allowed to eat or drink anything, just sips of water. Then she can drink clear fluids. Then any fluids. Then a light diet, and eventually a proper diet. Her bowels will not work for the first few days, and she will not be able to go home until they are working properly. At first they will be erratic, and it may be difficult. But that lasts for only a few days. But it takes 3 to 6 months to get some "normality" back. But that doesn’t mean months of horrible bowel habits, which is what I thought.
Good luck!
It kind of depends on where in the colon it is. She may have a temporary or permanent ostomy. People live with that all the time and we never know they have it.
Wishing her a fast recovery, and good luck to you both!
It depends where it is. You usually have loose bowels for 6 months or so until your body becomes used to the shorter bowel. Controllable by Loperamide & you have an interesting scar on your belly.
There is the small intestines and the large
intestines. The large intestines is known as
the colon. It will depend on whether or not
they do a J pouch operation or not.
With a J pouch, the operation is performed
so that they can reattach the colon to the
rectum and she may be able to go to the
bathroom after having a second operation to
reconnect. If not, she will have to have
a colostomy bag to wear. The part of the
intestines will be connected to an area of
the skin where the contents of the
intestines can move into a bag instead of
a toilet. These are connected by adhesive
to the skin and are changed often. The
colon is where the body absorbs most
of the liquid from the stool before going to
the rectum. Therefore, her stools may be
runnier and more liquid because it hasn’t
completely done this. She should discuss
with the doctor if any medication should
be taken for this and what diet she might
need to have.
Here is a great site that talks about
colostomies and also will send you a free
letter of hints, tips, and what is involved.
http://www.ostomy.evansville.net/
There are pads that help remove the adhesive
from the skin made by Smith and Nephews
known as adhesive remover. They also have
pads that are soaked in a solution as a
protector of the skin…like Bard Skin protector.
She will try different bags to decide which
ones are best suited for her. Some open at
the bottom to remove the contents and some
are closed. She will probably have
an enterostomy nurse explain how to put the
bag on and if she has a problem, she should
be able to call her. The doctor will tell
her when she can start to have relations with
her husband again. She may have restrictions
on lifting things as this uses the abdominal
muscles. If the intestines cannot be reconnected again to the rectum…it may be
sewn shut during the operation.
There is really nothing much different about
a person other than they dispose of the
waste in the body in a different area than
most and it is extra work to handle it.
You can sometimes send for free samples
of pouches and wafers…you will see offers
of this on the Site I listed above.
Depending on whether the tumor is
located in the ascending ( going up)…the
transverce (going across.)..or the descending ( going down) colon, they
may try to reconnect the colon together
which also would require a second
operation to do this.
I hope this is of some help to you.