June 30, 2010

May's and June's Updates

Okay so I left here in April telling you that my colon biofeedback had to be stopped.

May 3rd I saw my GI Dr only for him to tell me I needed to see my Colon Surgeon as soon as possible. That there wasn't anything he could do for me. Not surprising to me because of all I have been through since January.

May 6th I saw my Colon Surgeon for a surgical consult - she scheduled surgery for May 21st - should be in hospital for 5 to 10 days. She would remove my large colon and reattach the small intestines to the remaining colon/rectum area. A walk in the park for her since this is all she does.

Well on May 21st I had my surgery - she removed 4 feet of large colon and reattached the small intestines to the 10 inches of remaining colon. This was done by robotic surgery so minimal cutting, to help in healing. My small intestines were to stay asleep for about 4 days and then things would be moving around properly in the BM department.

Not me - small intestines woke up within 24 hrs and caused a problem - bled through almost had to have a transfusion, luckily for me things stopped and no transfusion was needed. I was given food for a few days only to have it pulled because my intestines decided to stopped working again. Back to ice chips and minimal water for a week. By this time I was in the hospital 10 days, with no word has to when I could go home. I was told I needed to toot and go BM on a regular basis in order to go home. Four other Drs told us that the only way to battle my problem which is caused by my autonomic dysfunction is to have a colostomy. My surgeon was on board with the idea but was holding out to see what will happen.

Two weeks in the hospital and everything went haywire - I needed to have a pic line put in to get extra fluid and protein since I couldn't eat. What fun. Finally on day 20 a new med was given to produce BM and it worked I was going and going without stopping and tooting so much the entire floor could hear it. So on day 21 -3 weeks after surgery I could finally go home. Which brings us of June 11th.

Been home now just over 2 weeks - I am now going on my own 7 times a day which is totally the opposite of what had been going on - I have needed to stop taking all my colon meds because of this. Follow up with surgeon isn't until the 8th. At which time she needed to tell me if the removal was a good thing or not. I was told that if this happens a colostomy might be my only help well see.

Thanks for reading, that is all I can tell you for now, I will be back when I know more.