post surgery ???

[Raine1975]

Hi I am hoping someone here can help, My husband had a bowel resection performed 19 days ago to treat severe diverticulitis that would not respond to antibiotics. In 6 months he had 3 attacks that left him hospitalised on IV antibiotics to no avail. The first attack resulted in peritonitis which we fortunately got in time. The surgery took over  hours to perform via laproscopy and hand assisted. The surgeon removed his sigmoid colon and part of his rectum. Thankfully NO BAG. His colon was apparently like mush according to the surgeon with bits of it breaking off like wet tissue. Our question is what is "normal" at this stage post op. He feels very gassy, and when he has a BM its only little pieces about an inch long, the largest being the size of his little finger. He has been taking Lactulose to help as he feels hes blocked up. This then results in multiple BM up to 20+  pr day He feels swollen in the gut.  We are following the post op diet plan and still on NO FIBRE diet. We can begin introducing small amounts of fibre. Is all of this Normal? My husband is getting very frustrated and feels like it was a waste of time. Its very hard to get answers from the DR even though he is very good at what he does. It just seems like theres no where that says what to expect after surgery apart from the usual post op spiel. Thanks in advance. From one very confused frustrated wife  

[Morecambe]

I underwent a total colectomy in 2004 and, following a posting from another Medhelp patient, I answered via the response below:-

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

(click on my response dated 20 May 2008)

The observation of 20+ BMs per day is not unusual.  But I started on a high fibre diet a few weeks after surgery.  Imagine a liquid spillage on the kitchen floor on which you throw sawdust to make it easier to clean up.  I found that a high fibre diet helped to make my motions more "sludgy/muddy" rather than highly "liquid".

Good luck and please do come back if you have any questions.

regards
Morecambe

[Caryopteris]

I know this is frustrating and healing is slow.  It sounds pretty normal.  I have not heard of bowel surgery where they skipped the temporary colostomy.  

I should probably have a partial colectomy myself, but I dread the recovery.  As long as it is improving, no matter how slowly, it's good.