bowel & appendix removal = 14 surgeries for endo now.

Hi ladies,
Just found out that now I will be going in for surgery in a little over a week (april 26th). The doc plans on removing endo, adhesions, appendix and some of the bowel depending on how bad the endo is. My question is what happens when a doc removes some of the bowel?? will I have to wear one of those bags??? what should I expect??? pleeeeeze help sisters, I just read a lot of scary stuff on the net and I never know what to really believe, so I rushed here.
thanks sisters, your all brillant individuals
love Angel 0: )

I have an Aunt who had some bowel removed & she does not have to wear a bag. Have you asked your doctor what the procedure entails? I've heard of people wearing a bag while the bowel heals after surgery but I'm not sure which kind of surgery. Good luck..

Hi Angel I had most of my colon (bowel) removed a year after my hysterectomy. I had to sign a release that said one of the risks was waking up with a colostomy bag, either temporary or permanent. It was scary!

My DR had me do a very long, elaborate bowel prep in order to minimize the likelihood of a colostomy bag. The reason they sometimes do those is, if they find the bowel is contaminated with feces where they cut it, it may not be safe to join the cut ends together -- they would not heal properly and could allow feces to enter the pelvis, causing a dangerous infection (peritonitis).

I did not have to have a colostomy. If your bowel prep is really thorough, you should not have to, either... but there are no guarantees. Most often the colostomy is a result of emergency surgeries to the bowel where there is no time to do a proper prep.

If part of your bowel is removed, you will most likely wake up with more than the standard collection of tubes from a hysterectomy. I had two IV's (one in each hand), a central line (which you may not have), a Foley catheter (normal for a hyst as well) and an NG tube (unique to the bowel surgery). I was not allowed to eat or drink anything, not even to rinse my mouth, for the first two days. I got all my "food" by IV. The NG tube was aspirating the contents of my stomach, which at that point only consisted of whatever saliva I swallowed. The reason is that they didn't want any food or drink contacting the fresh incision where the cut ends of what remained of my colon were joined together. By the fourth day after surgery, I was allowed small amounts of liquids and soft foods like jell-o. The fifth day, I got to go home and resume my normal diet.

The pain from the bowel surgery was a lot worse than for my hyst (which was done vaginally). Talk with your DR about the plan for pain management in the event that your bowel is resected. I did pretty well with IV dilaudid and Toradol, dropping the dilaudid after the first couple of days, and switching over to oral Toradol when I went home.

The recovery was much longer than for the hyst... I did not really feel 100% for almost a year afterwards. I'm not trying to scare you, but to be realistic about what a bowel resection can add to your experience. I hope you don't have to have it done, but if you do, know that you can get through it. I did, and it's behind me now.

Good luck with your surgery!
s,
-Linda

O My ....I had no idea, Thanks for all the info! Honestly, I think I just sprouted feathers...I don't know if I want to go through with this now, I'm so scared.
Love Angel

HI sisters,
I did it...on wednesday will be two weeks! I had more endo removed, adhesions and a hernia...my bowel was saved, I was thrilled about that. The pain was really extreme this time, Im not sure if its because I was on so many, heavy duty pain killers to begin with, but Iam really happy I am finally able to move around and sleep on my side again! I felt like a bug stuck on my back! My staples were removed 7days after, didnt hurt like I thought it would, I was scared for nothing, the nurse was Grrrreat! I hope this is the last surgery I will have to deal with due to the endo.(#14). I see the doc 2morrow hope all goes well.
thanks again sisters for all the support!
love angel

Glad your bowel was saved! I am sorry about your pain though. Best wishes to you and I hope your appt goes well.

s