question about stitches and ibs

I was wondering how long it takes for the external stitches to heal and if they'll be the kind that desolves or has to be taken out?

also I have a spastic colon I guess they call it ibs now though. I dont take anything for it and was wondering if it could get better after surgery or if it acts up after surgery will it feel worse. I'm afraid it'll act up and I'll end up straining myself and hurting something inside

Hugs!

I had staples on my long vertical incision. I don't know how many there were, but my husband lost count at 34, and there were many more! (Note: I had a radical hysterectomy, which required a longer incision than a normal hyst.) The nurse removed the staples just before I went home from the hospital, which was Monday night after my Friday surgery. It was not painful. She replaced the staples with a solid layer of steri strips. The Dr. said I could remove the steri strips at 10 days, but I chose to leave them on for 2 weeks plus a day or two. My incision healed very nicely with no gaps or problems. The internal incisions will dissolve, and my Dr. said there might be some vaginal bleeding at about 2 weeks when this happens.

As far as your unhappy colon goes, you will just have to take lots of stool softeners, eat prunes, do anything you have to do to keep it soft. Remember that pain killers cause constipation. Milk of Magnesia will help get things moving after surgery. I would think that you should do a good bowel prep before surgery, to clear everything out and give you a good start afterward. But don't do that without the Dr.'s advice. Best of luck to you!

Hi - you don't mention what kind of surgery you're having. I had a bikini line incision with staples on the outside. My staples were removed on day 4 when I left the hospital, and I returned to the doc's office a week later to have the steri-strips removed. My incision healed just fine, no gaps or anything. I had internal stitches which self-dissolved after about 2 weeks - had some drainage with them but nothing serious.

I was diagnosed with IBS several years ago. It's not been severe enough to take a medication on a regular basis, although for the month or so before surgery I was taking Metamucil every other day just to make sure things kept moving and were in balance. Since surgery I have not had any instances of actual constipation - no straining or anything of that nature. I have had less frequent BM's than a person might expect, but I figure as long as there's no straining I'm doing okay. Right after I got home, I started doing Metamucil every day, and Milk of Magnesia twice a week. Stool softeners don't seem to do much to help me move things along and that's the main issue in my case. Also, Gas-X is a real life saver because it breaks up the intestinal gas to smaller bubbles, makes it less painful while it moves along.

Water, juices, walking and changing resting position often will all become second nature to you post-op. I truly believe that my symptoms are decreased since surgery - not completely gone but less than before. Which makes sense, considering there's not that oversized uterus plus golf balls pressing on my intestines anymore.

thanks for the replies
I kind of thought about taking benifiber to help keep things moving but have been afraid it'd make it worse, also thought about getting the gas-x cause I know that works good. I'm going in for surgery in less than 2 weeks so it may be a bit late to start taking anything like that but I'll ask the doc if it'd be ok.

I'm going in to have a lavh done, band-aid surgery as they say, and was wondering how long it will take to heal on the outside I'm hoping I wont need the bowel prep, afraid of it making it worse, but if he says so I'm sure it'll be for the best.

thanks again