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Advice for a Resection, please let me know about your experiences

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Crohn's Disease
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mtlsweetie
Regular Member
Joined : Nov 2003
Posts : 28
Posted 4/2/2008 2:45 PM (GMT -7)
Hi,

I now have had crohn's for 9 years and been on Pentasa my pains have been minor and not often. But now that i am married my GI wanted to do some test to see what stage was my crohn at before I would get pregnant and to be safe. I have done the colonoscopy and he wrote a note to my general doctor stating I am a candidate for a resection.

What does a Resection involve? I know they will be cutting a part but is it painfull? How many days for recovery? What the worst that can happen? How many can't i eat? Please let me know about your experiences? What should I ask my GI when I see him next week? How long after can I get pregnant?

As you can see I am really nervous.

Thank you,

Natalie

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smile1967
Regular Member
Joined : Jan 2008
Posts : 174
Posted 4/2/2008 4:52 PM (GMT -7)
Hi Natalie,

I had my first resection done on Feb.11/08.  The surgery went very well and they were able to perform it laproscopically so that helped immensely with recovery. I have a 3 inch incision just below my belly button and 2 other very small incisions on my belly. As for surgery they removed part of my cecum, terminal ileum, ileocecal valve and found 3 strictures in my TI. They thought I only had one stricture before surgery and that was causing me a great deal of discomfort. My strictures were narrowing with scar tissue so no medication would have helped my situation, so therefore surgery was what needed to be done and I am soo glad I had it done. I feel so much better. You did not say why your doctors think you need a resection and where about in your bowel? I was in the hospital for 7 days. The first few days are very uncomfortable to move around so make sure you take the pain meds.

They get you up and trying to do a short walk the next day, this helps get things moving bowel wise and are constanting asking you if you have passed gas yet!! I was on ice chips for the first few days and then they slowing introduced clear fluids, then solid fluids etc. You can expect diarrehea after surgery and that will eventually slow down, each person's experience is different. I honestly didn't start to feel myself again until about 4 weeks after surgery. I am dealing with a fissure right now and extreme fatigue but other than that I feel good and I am having "normal" bowels movements! I cannot answer your question as to when you can get pregnant after surgery....your doctor will know. As for pregnancy itself, even though I was not officially diagnosed with CD then, I never felt better during pregnancy. All of my symptoms ( D and pain) disappeared and then slowly crept back when my boys were about 6 months old. Discuss all of your options with GI, surgery vs. medication etc. Having surgery now vs. waiting until after you have a child ( if that is even an option) trying to recover with a small child makes me exhausted thinking about it!!! But I am sure many more people will soon come along who have gone through what you are facing right now and will be able to give some great advice. I just thought I would tell you a bit about my experience. Take care and please keep us up to date.

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Barbz
Veteran Member
Joined : Jun 2005
Posts : 897
Posted 4/2/2008 5:06 PM (GMT -7)
I had surgery 1 year ago almost to the day and I would not change it for the world but i had no choice i had 3 obstructions in 2 months time. I had the best rectal surgeron around Dr. Mutch at Barnes Jewish In St. Louis MO. He did it laproscopic i have maybe a 2 inch incision down my belly button so you cant really see it and then 3 tiny ones where they put the camera's in to watch what they was doing. They removed 12 inches of the TI ( Lower part of small intestine) and to be honest my pain was not bad at all they had me on a morphine pump. I came home 5 days later with very little pain. I have to say the D is not gone all the way. I am supposed to be taking powder called quastran to help bulk up the stool but i dont have accidents anymore!! I feel alot more in control of my bowels and if i had it to do over again i would because it really was worth it but if there is nothing wrong and you are not in any pain and not obstrctions i dont know if i would let them cut on me. I would find out why he is wanting to do this surgery and how much they are talking about removing and what part they are wanting to remove this from. Good luck and god bless you. Barb
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mtlsweetie
Regular Member
Joined : Nov 2003
Posts : 28
Posted 4/2/2008 5:09 PM (GMT -7)
Thank you for responding the resection will be in my small intestin and the reason is that it is very narrow and pages is getting small.
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vadreamer1
Regular Member
Joined : Aug 2006
Posts : 198
Posted 4/2/2008 5:17 PM (GMT -7)
I had a resection in May 05. I was perforated and 90% obstructed. I had the full incision, around my belly button and all the way down, plus a cross cut at the bottom. I was in the hospital for 7 days. Everyone estimated a 7-10 day stay. I couldn't move my legs for the first two days. Pretty standard stuff. Had a tube that went down my nose into my stomach. Didn't eat until day 6. The pain was pretty manageable. I was on a morphine drip for 5 days in the hospital. they gave me Percocet for 2 days in the hospital and a script for more. Took 1 at home and got so sick. Ended up with a script for Vicodine. Used that for about 4 days. After that - Tylenol.

I was out of work for six weeks. The end result? Fantastic. The surgery was by far the best thing for me. Make sure you have a top notch surgeon. I wish you luck.
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gachrons
Veteran Member
Joined : Mar 2007
Posts : 4527
Posted 4/2/2008 5:28 PM (GMT -7)
Hi I had a epidermal and no pain at all with that it did not hurt getting it out just like a little IV or something in the upper shoulder. I was in for 7 days open surgery and 18 staples. I did have infection after the staples were removed. Ate mostly jello and liquids for a couple of days . Recovery took awhile for me because I was in bad shape before surgery but seemed to go better then when I had abdominal abcess surgery. I am feeling good with 2 or 3 normal BM's as in solid. I am over 50 so not planning on getting pregneant but see others have helped you with that. Like the others said ask why they figure you need surgery. Like most surgeries it usually takes 6 weeks for full recovery and with us having IBD it might be longer for some. I eat good now and have no pain before I was havung lots of pain , D , and getting quite weak.I couldn't do my housework at the end before surgery and couldn't eat. Hopefully not everyone will get that bad before surgery. Keep in touch and let us know how things are going.lol gail
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