Recovery time?

[g8r grl]

My brother-in-law was diagnosed with Crohns when he was about 16, now he is 27. He has been having lots of problems in the past year and has lost 60lbs. He is about 6ft tall and only weighed 163lbs when in the hospital last week. They have tried to scope him from both directions, but he is so inflamed and full of ulcers that they could not get the scope. They were not able to see about 3ft of intestine.

He went into the hospital last week after being sick for days. He had a CT and they found an abcess (sp?). The put in a drain and it did well for a few days, but another CT discovered that it had come out, so they did the procedure all over again on Monday. Last night, brown fluid was draining and my sister (she's a nurse) took him back to the hospital. They did another CT and discovered the infection has gotten A LOT worse and now they are doing surgery tom'w to remove this portion of his intestine.

Has anyone had this procedure done? How long is the recovery? Please share your stories if you have them! I want an idea of what's to come. Thanks!

[Caneruler]

I'm 35 and have been living with Crohn's for the last 25 years. My first small bowel resection was when I was 11. I have to have another surgery soon.  The timing couldn't be worse because my wife is due to have our second child next week.

How long after the surgery should I be able to lift my newborn and care for him? How long should I expect to stay in the hospital?

[wiscoblonde13]

I had my surgery about 5 months ago.  I am having  episodes of diarrhea with some bleeding.  Has anyone else had this.  The bleeding comes and goes.  Sometimes it is quite heavy.  Has anyone else had similar problems.

[steve1577]

I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at the tender age of 11. At the age of 34, just over a week ago, I had my first bowel resection. I was going through Remicade treatments when I started to develop severe pains near my appendix. After a few CT scans, my doctors informed me that the inflammation at my terminal illeum was also causing my appendix to be inflammed. I cannot go take prednisone (causes fluid to build up under my left retina making vision blurry), so they handed me the bowel resection "sentence". I knew I was going to have a resection eventually, and prepared myself as best I could pre-op. The surgery went smooth, all laproscopic. The day after surgery, I took a small walk down the hospital floor...and by walk I mean slow upright drag, clinging to the IV cart. Getting mobile right after surgery definitely increases your recovery time, and helps the trapped gases out. Each day I walked more, but carefully. Day 3 in the hospital was the worse. I started feeling sharp pains where they operated, and the pain meds were not helping. The pains progressively got worse until I was able to scamper into the restroom. Feeling like I was going to pass out from nausea and dizziness, I had a small bowel movement (diarrhea) followed by the best passing of gas in my 34 years. Recovery seemed to get a lot easier from there. I've been home now for 8 days. I have been maintaining a low residue diet (not going to 'normal eating habits' until I feel my insides are ready). The incision pains have been decreasing daily, and I only feel pain inside when I stretch or breathe deeply. I am off all pain meds and still resting as much as possible. Taking it slow and easy is the key. Do not sit up fast, do not walk fast, pace yourself. However, taking walks and being mobile is helping. I have diarrhea with gas about 4 times a day, but after 23 years with Crohn's, I'm used to it. They do say the diarrhea will end in a month or two...I can't wait. I am a firefighter and martial artist, so recovery and rest has been very difficult. Not being able to pick up my two year old daughter is tough, but she knows I have stomach boo-boo's. The best advice I have is to get moving the day after surgery, and increase the duration/length of your walk each day. Rest comfortably when you get home, but go for a walk a few times a day. Do not lift anything or strain to do anything. Do not (at least it works for me), go back in to normal eating habits/patterns. Keep the fluids up, and eat small amounts throughout the day. The low residue diet seems to be working for me, however, I cannot wait to be able to have a beer and a steak again someday.

[April2]

I had a mass removed and a small bowel resection back in August. They used the strips on me too. I was in the hospital for about 6 days. It was my choice. They said I should stay between 5 to 6 days. They allowed me to use a morphine drip and control my own pain medication whenever I needed it. I didn't have a lot of pain this way because I controlled it pretty well. I was moving rather slowly but they did get me out of the bed and walking the first day. Each day they told me to walk a little more. The first day I didn't get anything to eat. They wanted my bowels to have a rest. The next two days I was on a liqued diet. After that it was soft food and then regular food once I checked out. I actually did really well. The recovery took me longer than I expected but I'm not a real patient person so I kept trying to do too much at first and then would pay later with pain! I learned to force myself to take it easy the first few weeks. I let my family take over the household chores while I rested. The surgeon told me to wait 6 weeks after recovery at home to return to work. I was ok with that because my work involved lifting (I work as a CNA part time) and I knew I wasn't up to that yet.
I would say it took me a few months to feel completely back to normal, where I didn't have to force myself to slow down when I was walking, where I wasn't feeling that pinch or pain in my stomach when I bent down or walked too fast or sat down too fast (ouch! I learned that one real fast!) But the alternative is great. Before my surgery I was having stomach pains because the mass was constricting things. I now feel great! :)

Just remember to give this some time. It won't be easy for him to take it easy for a few months but he needs to so that he doesn't end up back in the hospital. That happened to a friend of mine who had a resection and she tried to do too much and didn't give herself enough time to recover and wound up back in the hospital. So you might want to warn him that it's better to take a few months to be completely back to normal than do too much, end up in the hospital and then back track and have to go through recovery again. I kept reminding myself of that when I'd get impatient with how slowly I felt I was recovering.
Another thing to consider is to get a hospital bed that first week or so that he's home from the hospital. We did that because that first day home I couldn't sleep because I couldn't lay flat or get comfortable. I finally slept in the recliner the first night and my husband rented a hospital bed after that. It's just that first week or two after surgery that it's hard to get in and out of bed. After that, he should be fine. You don't realize how much you use your stomach muscles until they've been cut into! :)
I was also fortunate in that our church brought meals over the first two weeks. I did not feel like eating much, much less cooking but knew my family needed to eat.
I hope any of this helps. I wish him a speedy recovery! God bless.

[jojodudu]

My 12 year old son just had a small bowel resection on 11 December.  He had an open surgery with the incision a little over his belly button to approx 4 inches below.  His surgeon didn't use staples on the exterior, just strips.  The incision scar is very fine and looks like it will heal leaving very little visible scaring.  They removed 50 cm of his small bowell and his appendix.  He recovered quite well from the surgery.  He still had a GI tube for first couple of days.  He started on clear fluids, soft food then regular diet.  He was in hospital for 8 days post op.  He was able to return to school on 7 Januray 2007 with only restriction being no gym or heavy lifting.  His appetite is good and is seems to be doing quite well.  I hope your brother-in-law recovers as quickly as my son.  The first few days after the surgery don't seem too good but then there seems like there is a quick change.  Good luck.