fistula complication

[badbam]

My husband suffers from ielo crohn's meaning he has an ielostomy.
He recently had surgery to remove an abdominal cyst, probably related to some previous surgery. His incision popped open in 2 places and we are told they are fistulas. We are familar with fistulas on the intestines that have tunneled through to his skin, but we don't understand this at all. We have good Doctors, but I thought maybe some one in this forum might have had a similar experience. I would welcome any discussion you are willing to share.

[Jaybay]

That happened to me after resection surgery, and it involved surgical clean-out of all the pus, insertion of a drainage tube, anti-biotics, and weeks of rehab to allow everything to heal from the inside-out.  Takes a while to fully heal, but it is treatable.  Just have to be patient.  What are the docs doing for your husband right now?  Hope things start to look up soon, as I know how miserable it can be.

I can't imagine dealing with the fistula on top of dealing with an ileostomy.  My dad had one and it was nothing but a huge misery.  There is plenty of help and assistance for those with colostomy, but not for ileostomy.  At least, that was our experience in 1994.  The bags kept popping off in less than 2 hours because they couldn't hold the liquid contents, or due to the placement, Dad would accidentally knock it off the stoma.  I'm sure you know what an awful experience that one can be!  Best wishes to you both.  :-)

[cassi0]

My husband recently got an ileostomy due to a resection surgery for  a fistula on the intestine.The incision popped.  So now he is wearing a temporary ileostomy. The problem now is the out put from the ileostomy is heavy.  He was recently hospitalized for dehydration.  Can any one give some suggestions on what foods to eat to slow down the flow or the names of some meds to take to slow it down.  We would greatly appreciate it.

[Jaybay]

I am so sorry your husband has to deal with an ileostomy.  As we found out when my father had one (gallbladder cancer) there just isn't much help available with an ileostomy.  There's tons of help and information for those with a colostomy bag, but ileostomies are notoriously difficult to manage.  The placement of the stoma is in a really bad spot because arm movement tends to accidentally knock everything out of place - particularly while sleeping.  Because the contents of the small intestine are liquid and high volume as compared to the colon, we had to religiously change the bag every 2 hours round the clock.  Either that, or Dad got to deal with a horribly smelly and embarrassing mess.

There really isn't anything to be done as far as diet changes.  The heavy liquid contents of the small intestine aren't going to be changed.  You might try ringing up the Patient Advocates office at the hospital.  Every hospital (unless extremely small) should have such an office.  The PA's job is to help patients and families get assistance for exactly these kinds of issues.  They can help find anything from social workers to home health care assistance to setting up meetings when an entire team of doctors is involved and nobody seems to be communicating.  The PA is a very valuable resource that isn't always made known to patients.  Hopefully you'll get some good advice trying that route.