My brother just had a colonectomy due to cancer(Lynch syndrome). Today it's been a week, still in hospital, he has been going to the bathroom a lot (not even eating food yet and weird stuff coming out?), but so sore due to prior surgery and scar tissue the surgery took over 5 hours. He is swelled so badly and bruised. Last night they finally inserted tube in stomach to drain bile. This morning a total of 4 gallons since yesterday. What can he expect going forward? Dr has scheduled a cat scan today and wants him to walk but he's in severe pain.
Hey Simmo my father is very sick as well. He also had a 2nd surgery for intestinal twisting that was also taken out his is his 5th day since his second surgery and is trowing up again. I'm so worried can you please tell me when your father started to improve and what helped him. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Hi - I underwent a total colectomy about five years ago for torrential diverticular bleeding. Although it was estimated that I would require a hospital stay of ~8 days in fact I had to remain there for ~12 days. Everything regarding the operation went well but the onset of the ileus delayed my discharge. I recall the approx timetable as follows:-
- day 1 - the operation
- days ~2-5 recovering, I.V. nutrition
- day 6 tried simple food intake but feeling nauseous/vomited>>>nasal gastric tube because of ileus
- day 7-10 nasal gastric tube continued I.V nutrition (I believe with sugars/protein and
a fluid called "Kabby" or similar)
- day 10 less nausea, tried very simple food intake which not vomited back up
- days11-12 continued with light food intake and discharged.
I think you should ask for an urgent meeting with the responsible doctor and ask:-
- why is the nasal gastric tube not being aspirated? Why does my father have to endure avoidable vomiting?
- is there a targetted I.V. feeding regime that will supply the necessary nutrients to aid recovery
- what can you do to accelerate solving the ileus problem? In my opinion there should have been more active intervention if this has lasted as long as 7 days.
Good luck and I hope that your Dad is soon fit and well again
regards
Morecambe
Hi! thanks for replying. Yes my dad has a nasal/gastric tube and the nurses are suppose to suringe this every 4 hours. But they are so short staffed that this does not get done. My dad knows that he is going to vommit about 10 minutes before, as he gets hot and clammy and feels sick, but again the nurses are so busy that by the time they come over he has vommited two bowls full.
May i ask how many days you were vommiting and how long before you felt well again and ready to leave hospital. Also, do you know if this is normal to be vommiting for so many days after his operation, he has been vomitting now for 7 days and the doctors and nurses have not said if this is normal or not.
There is a condition known as "ileus" whereby the bowels become inactive following their manipulation during surgery. I suggest that you ask the surgeon about this and whether there are any drugs that can be administered to speed up the re-start of the intestines.
I believe that there are nutritional preparations (protein/sugar/vitamin etc etc) that can be administered via an I.V. tube to aid recovery. This is what happened to me following a total colectomy.
If your father has a nasal/gastric tube then the nurses should surely be sucking out of his stomach 4-6 times per day the stomach contents including the bile juice so that these fluids are extracted before any nausea sensations following by vomiting. Likewise after my own operation I had a nasal gastric tube inserted and with frequent extraction of the stomach contents until the ileus passed.
regards
Morecambe