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Surgery? Any Advice?

Wed, August 06, 2008 3:11 PM

Hi everyone, I am new to this website. I have had crohns for about 20 years and have been blessed with only flare-ups that were manageable with meds.

Life is changing though . . .

I just had the camera pill on June 26 and landed in the hospital with it still in my small bowel on July 17! Ever since this I have not felt good after I eat. Constant bloating, by the end of the day I cannot wear my pants, stool has become hard, and a lot of aching pain on the right side of abdomen along with the aching throuhgout my lower back. The discomfort is affecting my moods and life! It needs to stop!

The gastro dr said to see a surgeon. I am very nervous! They are going to want to retrieve the camera pill (if it is still in the small bowel) and while they are in there they may want to re-section the bowel?

My surgeon appt is not until Aug 19 and I am looking for any advice on questions for the surgeon. I is the director of colorectal surgery at the hospital I am attending.

Thanks for your time, and any advice will be greatly appreciated!

lmiller27
Joined Aug 6, 2008

Wed, August 06, 2008 11:39 PM

Reply posted for lmiller27.

Hi!

On July 2nd I had a resection of my large intestine due to a stricture in my large intestine caused by the Crohn's disease and constant flare ups. The stricture shorten my large intestine by about 2 feet (normal people have six feet of large intestine) and about 2 feet had to be removed. Because my rectum was so inflamed the colorectal surgeon was unable to reconnect the good intestinal tissue to the bad rectum tissue so now I am left with a colostomy. It has been a rough month for me because of infections due to the surgery so I've spent most of the month in the hospital. However, I am feeling better than I was before I had the surgery. The reason I'm telling you all this is because there are some questions that you need to ask that I had to ask before I had my surgery such as:

While they are in there are they going to check out the rest of your intestine? (Meaning are they going to pull it all out and and look at the outside or look for strictures.)

How are they going to do the surgery? Are they going to do it laproscopicly or are they going to just make a big incision?

If they have to do a resection what are the odds you will wake up with a colostomy or ostomy?

How long will the recovery take? How much time will you spend in the hospital after the surgery?

Okay, those are a few questions I would ask... I'm sure there are more that you probably can think of but hopefully that helps you.

Good luck and I wish you the best!

Nichole

nicholemarie13
Joined May 26, 2008

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