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surgery to remove rectum

Fri, October 10, 2008 10:08 AM

My Husband has been living with UC for the last 6 years. His symptoms were never managed well enough with meds. We tried pretty much all of them. The most success he had was with Humira for about 1 year. In March he had the worst flare ever which landed him the hospital for a month with surgery to remove his entire large intestine. He was also diagnosed with an rectal abcess/fistula which they drained and created a loop which he still has. Due to his poor response rectally post-surgically we are considering surgery to remove his rectum before it becomes a huge problem. It is effecting him as much as UC did with the constant draining (mucus & blood). He left the hospital undiagnosed because surgical pathology was not definitive of UC or Crohns. As his biggest advocate I educated myself as much as I could regarding UC, however I truly do not know what to expect with this surgery. He has hard a tremendously hard time mentally with his ostomy. Any advice or information is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

kimberlyl
Joined Mar 29, 2008

Sat, October 25, 2008 6:10 PM

Reply posted for KimberlyL.

I wish I had the right answer for you. I have crohn's and have had to have a colostomy. I have large fistula in my rectum. Right now I take Humira and have had good success. At first my Dr said that my rectum could not be saved because of how much of it was infected. I still have hope that I will one day be able to have a reversal surgery and put back together. Have you tried both steroids and the Humira at the same time?

lowderc7398
Joined Oct 25, 2008

Tue, October 14, 2008 12:00 AM

Reply posted for nicholemarie13.

Update: Hubby is scheduled for surgery 10/31/08 (very fitting!). Will keep you posted!

kimberlyl
Joined Mar 29, 2008

Sat, October 11, 2008 9:56 PM

Reply posted for KimberlyL.

Hi,

I have Crohn's-Colitis and had surgery in July to remove half of my large intestine and now I have a colostomy. I understand how your husband feels because I'm having a hard time adjusting to my ostomy. I still have my rectum too and my gastro doctor has hopes that someday they will be able to "put me back together". I don't have high hopes... my best friends grandmother has had UC for 15 years and has an ileostomy and no longer has a rectum and she told me that it was the best decision she ever made. I am on the fence on whether or not I'd like them to remove my rectum... I still have a lot of pain down there (which is suprising me since there isn't anything there to really bother it) and mucus output. Ultimately, its your husbands decision... it's so hard to make decisions that you know you can't take back because its permanent.

I wish you and your husband the best of luck!

Nichole

nicholemarie13
Joined May 26, 2008

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