bowel resection

[laurence99]

i am brand new to this forum.i suffer from adhesions(14 yrs.) resulting from a miss diagnosed burst
appendix. i have had four surgeries so far and am now sheduled for my fifth.i have never had a bowel recection .i will be having my first recection (4-6inches) on my upcoming surgery.i was wondering if anybody is in the same boat that i am in and could tell me if there is much difference between a lissis for adhesions verses a bowel resection as far as hospital procedeurs and recovery.any help would be appreciated

[Sue357]

You mentioned your friend having a small pin hole leak where the colon was re-sected ( I think they call this anatamosis?)  Well, how did he know it was leaking?  I am almost 6 weeks post op and seem to be healing but just curious...what symptoms did he have and how did they treat it?  Thanks.  Sue

[April2]

I had a resection done in my small intestine where it hooks up to the large intestine (the Terminal Illeum). I had a mass w/ulceration that they removed. They removed about 6 inches. I too had to prepare the day before with that lovely drink they make you drink to clean you out. My surgery went smootly. I was able to control my own pain with morphine through my IV. My bowels were pretty quiet the first day or so. They wouldn't let me drink right after the surgery and I was so thirsty! I remember that. They finally let me have some ice chips. The first day they had me just sipping water. The second and third day they had me on a liqued diet, like broth, tea, jello. It was just as well. I did feel kinda sick for the first few days. Then they allowed me to eat but was still watching me. I didn't have a bowel movement for 10 days after the surgery. They really wanted to make sure everything was working with that but I wasn't cooperating in the hospital!
The thing that surprised me was how long I took to recuperate. I kept trying to hurry things up and then would regret it. I had to make myself take it easy the first few weeks home. I was pretty sore the first week or so and we actually got me a hospital bed to use for awhile because I couldn't get comfortable. I couldn't sleep on my side or back. I had to sleep sitting half way up for awhile.
I didn't have any problems with the incision healing or anything like that. My surgeon told me it would take about six weeks recovery after surgery and he was right. It has now been three months and I feel great! Most importantly I haven't had any of the stomach pains I was having before the surgery (due to the mass that was restricting my small intestine).
The important thing is just to take it easy and give yourself time to heal. Don't try to rush back into things too soon. Let others take care of you and pamper you for awhile. I wish you well! Take care.

[Jaybay]

Since you had open surgeries in the past, then the recovery will be about the same.  The biggest difference is you really have to pay attention to how your guts deal with food after surgery.  The nurses are going to be after you to tell them as soon as you pass gas, because that means the colon is waking up again and trying to work properly.

PM stands for Private Message.  If you click on my screen name, there is an option to Send Message.  I think you have to set up your Med Help profile to accept PMs from other members.

[laurence99]

is the recovery about the same for the lysis of adhesions verses a bowel resection  given that they cant do a lap? (all my previous surgeries were done with a 8-12inch incision.i have too much scar tissue.) The prep will be new to me.every one of my surgeries was done on an emergency basis.
this will be the first preplanned surgery if i last that long.i had a complete obstruction two weeks ago
stayed in for 8 days and i know that a have a partial as we speak.
i have had all the infections and complications that you write about including a six inch open wound
one week after being released from the hospital.
hey its not so bad.i feel really sorry for some of the crohns people. one girl had to have two separate
complete procedures during one of my previous surgeries.
by the way. as i mentioned im new at this.what is PM

[Jaybay]

Hi laurence.  I have dealt with adhesions for over 10 years, and had nearly 2 feet of bowel resected because of them.  Yes, there is a great deal of difference in the two surgeries.  Lysis of adhesions is generally done laparascopically (as I'm sure you know) in order to keep inflammation and damage of tissues to the bare minimum.  Depending on how bad your adhesions are, the resection can be done via the scope, or the surgeon may have to convert to the open procedure.  Since you're looking at such a small section, it sounds like your odds are pretty much in favor of not having the open surgery.

I had to do a 2-day bowel prep prior to surgery.  Ugh.  Talk about just wanting to get it over and done with.  I swear those were the longest, most parched days of my life.  The surgeon's comment to my husband after the surgery was, "It was just one big sloppy mess in there."  LOL!  Yeah, I tried to tell him that!  The worst adhesions were in my lower pelvis, and the twisting of the sigmoid colon around the scar tissue caused parts of the colon to die because the circulation was cut off.  I had tons of adhesions in my RUQ, and all over my omentum.  The surgery took nearly 4 hours to complete, but the doc was able to do it all via laparascope.  The largest incision of about 2" was on the lower left side of my abdomen.  Simply put, the doc just pulled out the loop of bowel, cut off the bad part, sewed it back together, and stuffed it back in again.  

The thing about bowels is that they just don't like to be messed with at all.  It might take several days for peristalsis to begin again, so take it really easy on the food.  I made the huge mistake of eating rich holiday foods 2 days out of the hospital and ended up obstructed again.  It was just too much food, way too soon.  Expect to spend 2 or 3 days in the hospital until the docs are certain you can eat at least a light diet without pain and nausea.  The procedure sounds absurdly simple, but you'll feel extremely tired for longer than you might imagine.  That's because your body is using a huge amount of calories to heal.  Listen to your body.  When you get tired - sleep.

I was unlucky enough to get a post-op infection at the incision site about 6 days after the surgery.  Not fun.  Just when I thought things were looking up, it was back into surgery followed by 2 weeks of open wound debridement in physiotherapy.  In the gazillion surgeries I've had in my life, that was the only time I got a post-op infection - who knows why?  

Another friend of mine had a resection done (not due to adhesions) and he developed a pin-hole leak at the anastomosis site (where the sections are stitched together).  It was a really freak incident because it was 6 weeks after the initial surgery.  Once that was cleared up, he's had no further troubles in 5 years or so.

Feel free to throw some more questions at me, or PM me if you like.  :-)