Pain after eating after colon resection

[tria]

I had a resection 4 weeks ago, developed a large infection at the insicion site which is still draining but healing nicely, so I have decreased my pain meds to once a day. Now, after eating I have horrible cramping, which I believed the meds masked before.

Any idea what could be causing this? I also can feel a lump in my abdomen where the surgery was--could this be a leak or would I have lots of other symptoms by now?

Thanks for any advice...

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  I could think of a couple of possibilities regarding the cause of your abdominal pain, and I've listed them down below:

1.  Ongoing infection in the operative site. If the infection around the operative site has not yet resolved, part of the bowel adjacent or near that site is going to be inflamed and tender. So if you eat a large amount of food, that inflamed bowel has to stretch to accommodate the bulk, and cause pain.  If this is the underlying problem, it could be resolved by eating lesser amounts but with increased frequency (6 or more feedings per day).  Drinking more fluids can also help lubricate the food and facilitate transit through your bowel.

2. If you've had a significant length of bowel resected, the remaining bowels may have a harder time handling food which have a high salt or sugar content ("hyperosmolar"), and would tend to develop crampy spasms when exposed to hyperosmolar food content.  For the meantime, you may want to avoid food with too much salt, sugar or spices, or even oily food.