Post illeus surgery

[Ashnicoss]

My boyfriend has had loose stools for as long as I can remember. 6 months ago he was hospitalized due to intestinal illeus which made him very ill. 1year prior to that, he had an apesiodomy. Since his last surgery, he feels he hasn't healed properly and is still very tender in the lower area of his belly. His bowels have gradually gotten less manageable, and he refuses to go see our family doctor. My question is, what are some possible causes of his condition, and if you have any advice on how to coax him into goin to see a physician, I'm open to suggestions.

[stace85]

I have some issues like you, but for different reasons! They can't figure out what has caused my chronic pancreatitis or my UNGODLY Chronic Stomach issues... They treat me like a drug seeker, I have often thought about putting myself in a home, I went to pain management and was doing really well on oxymorphone, but now they just changed the way the oxymorphone breakes down and I'm sick as hell again because of it! It makes me sick, that people ruin medications that could help u or I bc they are selfish and stupid... How are u doing currently?

[UCage7now32]

In other words I know pain and suffering from a young age in a way that few others can comprehend. Yet these are the very people who say "you can't take opiates, they're addictive! You'll have to keep increasing the dosage!" - Well if that's the trade off I face in return for sleeping a full night, being able to absorb THE VERY NUTRIENTS from my FOOD!, being hydrated, not having severe acne (giant zits in your nose, ear!), not getting 6 colds a year lasting 1 week or 2 each (I've only had 2 colds in the last 4 years I've been taking opiates for diarrhea), not being emaciated and skinny to the point that people think you are a meth addict (I've actually had people confide in me that they thought I was a drug user because I was so skinny) How do you explain that "Oh, no, I just started pooping blood when I was seven, and...(re-start the whole health history)". I really getting tired of re-counting my entire health history to a Dr. who doesn't even listen only to have him say "Oh, we don't treat diarrhea with opiods. You can take immodium or lomatil but that's it" Oh gee, thanks Dr. Now I'm going to go home and **** in my pants again as I've been doing almost every night for the past 16 years. My 100 year old grandma remembers when you could buy tincture of opium over the counter, they'd give it to babies! She is 100 years old and still 'with it'. She never abused drugs, smoked, drank, etc. - yet they act as if they prescribe this 'tried and true' medication that I'm going to start downing the whole bottle and commit crimes. I'm in school with 14 units, I've taught myself how to program, create websites, business/project planning, etc. (after having to quit four jobs and four semesters of college due to those fissures - which I never would have gotten if a Gastro or surgeon had told me about opiates - 15 years of chronic diarrhea, 1 year of life in a bed! countless accidents and lost relationships, currently on disability, can't do more than take my baby boy for tricycle walks every day or I get 'butt-burn' to the point of almost getting a fissure. Yet when I take opoids the acidic liquid stool doesn't leak out and wear down my anus, I have semi-formed stools, sleep better, absorb my nutrients, etc. Somebody please do something to help those of us who have had their colon, rectum, etc. removed due to Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's, trauma, colon cancer, etc. - the sad thing is that I read these posts and see that that most people don't even know about the INDICATED USE OF OPIOIDS for SEVERE CHRONIC DIARRHEA - this comes from 'POSITION STATEMENTS' from the Gastro associations for Dr.'s. - yet they are too scared (thanks to the ridiculous FDA) to prescribe it. Can you see how I've lost my freedom?

[UCage7now32]

By then I had lost 30lbs from not eating due to the pain (the pain is so bad I didn't eat anything but juice for 30 days, hoping that only juice would come out and the cut wouldn't re-open). I looked like a concentration camp victim, 99lbs at 5'9", could barely walk, my back was so weak I was hunched over like an old man. My colorectal surgeon prescribed hydrocodone for the pain which allowed me to eat again and get the nutrients needed for repair (without feeling the pain when I pooped). As noted, I had already been suffering from the chronic diarrhea for 8 years (age 16 to 24) when I got the first fissure. During those 8 years I studied health, nutrition, etc. - hoping to find some herb, food, anything that would slow my bowels down - so I could go out in public w/o having to find a restroom every hour or so. No more camping, hiking, etc. Stopped going to friends houses because not only do you have to go often but when you go the gas is extremely loud (flushing the toilet doesn't drown it out), the anxiety of walking out of someones living room bathroom after setting off a bomb is pretty intense. People w J-pouches I have found, often complain that they cannot pass gas w/out also passing liquid stool. Indeed, the only way I could pass gas was by laying down on my stomach, and even that resulted in leaked stool about half the time. What makes it worse is that you have so much more gas and liquid since the colon is no longer their to absorb the water. Anyway, after searcing for 8 years it was solely by coincidence that during those 3 months of laying on a mattress on my Mom's living room floor reading books, in between hourly trips to the bathroom (to ease the pain I would fill a small tub with hot water, put it in the bathtub, sit in it and go poop, get out and put it in the toilet, then take a shower to wash off, only dabbing the general area but not directly of course) Before I moved into my Moms I had been staying at my Dad's w/ no bathtub so I'd put a towel on the bed, lay there naked on my back, legs straight and together (any slight movement of the legs apart would cause severe pain), then just poop in bed on the towel. This is at least a dozen times per day of this routine so it gets very wearisome to say the least. The pain lasts about 5-10 minutes after each bowel movement and those measures I took only eased the worst part of the pain which was when the poop came out and spread open the cut. So again, since I took those pain meds for three months, I had a chance to notice that I was going a lot less and the stool was less watery, more like soft-serve ice-cream. The sounds in my stomach also stopped and the cramping/bloating was gone. At the time I had not idea about the opioid 'mu' receptors in the intestines and that opiates caused the smooth muscle contractions to slow down a lot (peristalsis/transit time). In addition I've also learned since then that opiates reduces intestinal secretions and help with sphincter control (resting tone?). After the fissure finally healed 3 months later and I regained the 30lbs I had lost, I continued to gain another 10lbs over the 135lbs. I had been for the last 8 years. (The reason I get the fissure in the first place was because I was trying to gain 15 lbs, which I did in pure muscle, but my anus couldn't keep up, it was my weak link and I was never told/warned and had not idea what a fissure/cut was, let alone what a cut down there would entail. When I had butt-burn and spotting on the TP, I just figured it would be spotting and heal, DONT GET A CUT ON YOUR ANUS FROM OVER-WIPING). I became much more careful and used baby-wipes (now I use cocoa-butter lotion on the TP) but I still ended up with 4 more fissures over the next 5 years (yes, the Dr.'s and my Mom all thought it was a recurrence of UC or even Crohn's but I new that it was from the wear and tear on my anus combined with lack of nutrient absorption/repair-materials, loss of sleep and waking up soaked in acidic diarrhea - and indeed I was correct after they insisted they do more colonoscopies to rule it out - I've never had bleeding or recurrence of UC after my j-pouch/proctocolectomy - JUST CHRONIC DIARRHEA EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE - AND ALL THE RESULTING SYMPTOMS/CONDITIONS associated with diarrhea (frequent colds, acne, dehydration, impotence, leakage, gas, bloating, cramps, crazy loud intestinal sounds at awkward moments). That is until I began taking opiates, not I'm 175 lbs and very healthy. I have two baby boys and a wife that loves me. I've since learned about all the controversy surrounding opiates, pain meds, etc. and the 'abuse' and control of these by our friendly government. Now I'm acutely aware of the fact that the only drug that effectively treats my surgically induced diarrhea is out of reach and in control of Dr.'s who are too busy with patients to take any time with their patients! :) I'm a man, a father, a husband, never been a criminal, etc. yet I've since been treated like a 'drug-seeker' or liar by a few Dr.'s and Pharmacists. Little did I know that after surviving all that blood loss and torment from UC from the ages of 7-16, spending over a year of my life in a hospital bed or in bed at home, experiencing severity and duration of pain that no doubt would amount to torture in another setting (needles in my anus, anal abscesses the size of golf balls, filled with puss, manually squeezed for 5 minutes out of my anus, waking up from my proctocolectomy 5 minutes after as I was being wheeled into post-op - because the epidural came out.

[UCage7now32]

I had my colon and rectum removed at the age of 16 (now 32) after having 3 major 'flare-ups' (internal bleeding > exits out the anus) due to Ulcerative Colitis beginning at age 7. Since the proctocolectomy I've had diarrhea every single day for the last 16 years. The last 3 years my diarrhea is more of a peanut butter consistency, my acne has cleared up, I'm more hydrated, I can sleep through the night, and I've gained weight for the first time since my surgery (135lbs. from age 16 to 28, now 175lbs at 5'9"). I developed a anal fissure/cut when I was 24 due to over-wiping (15 BMs per day), a couple more BMs every night - often waking up in the middle of the night (about 2 times per week, every week, for over a decade) already soaking in my own acidic diarrhea which further weakened the anal skin - only to wash up, go back to sleep and awake again 30 minutes later soaking in it again. I tried so hard to gain weight by exercising and eating more that it finally turned from 'butt-burn' into a small tear (anal fissure/cut) while I was on the job as a fitness trainer. Fortunately I was in the bathroom stall so I had a chance to gather myself enough (the pain is other worldly because the cut re-opens every time you go poop). Had to quit my job of course because it took 3 months to finally heal.

[patient915]

Welcome to the gastroenterology community!  Why did he have an episiotomy?  Usually this is done along with childbirth.  If he is still having pain, he needs to see a doctor.  Tenderness can be caused by so many different things.  Some advice for getting him to see a doctor is to have him go to a doctor he already knows (or one you already know) so that he is comfortable going.  You can also tell him that the doctor won't make him do any testing or get any procedures done if he refuses, but that he should know about all of his options.