colonic inertia

after 5 yrs of this problem 3 doctors recommended a total colectomy. is this a long recovery? What and how will this effect every day bowel functions? Will it be cronic (chronic) loose bowel movements forever or will this decrease in time? I don't really know if this is a solution or a trade off for a worse problem..Would really like some in put from people who have had this surgery and how they have adjusted to it over time..thanks

[Morecambe]

Hi - I underwent a total colectomy almost five years ago - but, in my case, it was for torrential diverticular bleeding.

In response to another Medhelp patient, I placed a posting on Medhelp with my experiences of this operation.  You can find it by logging in to:-

http://www.medhelp.org.posts/show/523166

I hope that this story will answer your questions.  In my case, my recovery was complete and without significant after-effects except for the time taken for the bowel openings to fall to a reasonable level.

However, every patient's experiences are different and I have read that some people take longer to recover and that also they do not shake off the after effects in total.

I have not experienced colonic inertia but I would imagine that if one had to choose between bowels that rarely opened and bowels that opened too frequently (within moderation...!!) one might choose the latter.

Good luck and do come back with any further questions that you may have after reading this - and the above-referenced posting.

regards
Morecambe