Hi Sasquatch, lean away and all the best. :-) 

Best of luck! 

Hey Sasquatch, It makes a lot of sense that you're feeling a bit nervous. Prior to my planned surgery on July 24th, I was very anxious. I will certainly be thinking of you and watching for your updates. Take deep breaths!

Marci

(just realized this thread is in the IBD forum, so I feel like a bit of an intruder.Hope it's ok that I weighed it :))

Hi Sasquatch,

I'll be thinking of you and praying. 

God bless,

Stella

Wishing  you all the best . 

Blessings , Bubbles 

Hoping all is well!!

The surgeon's office is in the process of scheduling me now, should be a few weeks, hopefully I can get in sometime around the 1st of November.  The surgery will be done by robot, and will be minimally invasive, and I will be stitched closed.  He say I will be able to come back to work in four weeks, and only expects me to be in the hospital for 2-3 days.  He has a real way of bringing me down to earth and making me feel comfortable about the procedure.  I feel like I'm in good hands.

Having a good surgeon who is approachable makes a huge difference. Glad to here its all falling into place. :-) 

Surgery scheduled for November 26th, the Monday after Thanksgiving here in the US.  My pre-op is on November 12th.  I'll get info in greater detail in the mail this week, and at the pre-op.  It doesn't look like I'll have a bowel prep, thank goodness, I didn't want to deal with that again.

Posted by: Sasquatch

Surgery scheduled for November 26th, the Monday after Thanksgiving here in the US.  My pre-op is on November 12th.  I'll get info in greater detail in the mail this week, and at the pre-op.  It doesn't look like I'll have a bowel prep, thank goodness, I didn't want to deal with that again.

I hope you have a good Thanksgiving weekend before your surgery! It also gives you some time to recover before the X-mas holidays! LOL

Sas,

Start a new thread when you have surgery done and do a diary type thread. I will be very interested to read about the good ,bad and ugly. The raw truth. Many of us might end up with this surgery  . It  will be good to have a non sugar coated view. 

Wishing all the very very best. Bubbles ??????

Good Luck Sasq!   We all hope you speedy recovery. 

Posted by: Bubbles

Sas,

Start a new thread when you have surgery done and do a diary type thread. I will be very interested to read about the good ,bad and ugly. The raw truth. Many of us might end up with this surgery  . It  will be good to have a non sugar coated view. 

Wishing all the very very best. Bubbles ??????

I will try to do that, if there is anything I am, it's completely, sometimes brutally honest.  I'll have a tablet with me at the hospital, so doing a daily log of my experience will probably be doable.  Besides, it'll give me something to do for the four weeks I'm out of work! 

Is it normal for the doctor to require an enema prior to the proctolectomy, especially if I already have the ileostomy in place?  When I talked to the surgery scheduler, she said I need to do that two hours before my arrival time, and when I got my surgery prep instructions, it was listed there as well.  I just thought it seemed kind of odd.  I'm going to have an early morning on surgery day, it's scheduled for 7:00 AM, with an arrival time of 5:00 AM, meaning I have to do the enema at 3:00 AM! 

Posted by: Sasquatch

Is it normal for the doctor to require an enema prior to the proctolectomy, especially if I already have the ileostomy in place?  

Probably up to the surgeon. My GI wants me to do a bowel prep before a scope even though it's not indicated for an ileoscopy. 

I'd give them a call to double-check - maybe it's listed as a blanket requirement.

makes a lot of sense to me why the surgeon would prefer it gets flushed out.   

Hi All

Im 41 years old and 11 days post rectal stump removal, I just wanted to share my experience of surgery and recovery and speak to others in the same position.

I had my stoma created 10 years ago and have opted to have my rectal stump removed due to the constant symptoms it still caused me and also it’s recent closeure and subsequent inability to be imaged.

So the surgery itself was 6 hours full open abdominal procedure (due to infection and amount of scar tissue) that said I was allowed home after 4 nights and haven’t been in too much pain.

the thing that I’m concerned about is that I have terrible digestive cramps and diarrhoea, I feel like I’ve got IBD symptoms after every meal and it’s incredibly painful :( I’m not sure if it’s normal post surgery or if I may have caught a bug but it’s been going on for 5 days now.

its very frustrating as my back end isn’t too sore now and my operative wound is bareable but this cramping is very hard to manage and stopping me getting back to normal activities. Has anyone else had this??

ps my stoma was for UC so I have managed to keep my external anus etc so don’t have much of a ‘wound’ rectally, I think this drastically helps the healing process.

nikki

Thanks for sharing, Nikki. 

Are you on any antibiotics because of the infections? That could be a cause for the diarrhea (happens to me when I'm on antibiotics). 

Sasquatch...I am sorry to hear you have to go through that procedure. Just knowing what I have gone through surgically, and in general living with Crohn's Disease, and reading what others have gone through, no one can say we aren't strong, that we aren't survivors.  I hope everything goes smoothly and it's a success. Looking forward to your thread about how things went.

I have had 2 bowel resections due to colorectal cancer. My colostomy was placed during the 2nd resection. 

After my first surgery I had about 2 months of the symptoms you are describing.  I eventually saw a naturopathic physician, he did a stool test and diagnosed me with an infection that is abbreviated C- diff.  I guess it’s fairly common after intestinal surgery and can easily be picked up in the hospital. 

Might be worth checking into.

Marci