My dad had an emergency perforated colon on Nov 5, 2008 he is 85 years old. He has just been moved out of ICU to a less critical room and is off the ventilator. He has developed a fistula twice that leaked. Is this normal? How serious is this in his recovery? Will he recover from this? The doctors always paint the worse scenario but do not seem to offer us the steps of how the healing progression works. We realize that it is a lengthy healing process and that he has withstood the surgeries with no problems. We just want to know how the fistulas play into his recovery - will he make a full recovery?
Paula
Peggy,
I had the exact same thing happen to me 3 years ago. I dont want to scare you but with the leakage being 3 days he is not out of the wood yet..I too waited 3 days before going to the ER.
Recovery time will vary as I'm sure he is wearing a colostomy bag. Some doctors make their patients wait up to 6 months before removing the colostomy bag while others have a shorter wait time. Right now he needs to focus on fighting the infection in his body. ONce his doctor removes the bag he sould be back to normal in just a few weeks.