Ileostomy reversal

Ileostomy Reversal
Hi Jim -

I had Chemo and Radiation treatment for my colon cancer followed by the colon resection surgery. The resection surgery failed, resulting in an abscess. My tumor was only 12 cm from the anal opening, so there was not much colon to work with on the resection.

After the resection surgery failed, I had a second surgery to drain the abscess, and my ileostomy was put in. I had the ileostomy in for exactly a year. It has been 6 months since the reversal, and has been a challenge. My docs tell me to expect that it will take my colon as long as the ileostomy was in to get to normal, but caution me this normal will never be what it was like before the illness. My gastroenterologist recently advised it may take 2 years. Some keys to managing post reversal:

1) Watch what you eat as others have advised. No fatty foods, no junk foods, avoid sugar, alcohol, excessive coffee, etc. Do some research on diahrea and the foods that contribute.
2) Eat banana's, rice, and marshmallows to help firm things up.
3) Fiber - Fiber will both control and cause diahrea depending on the situation the person finds themselves in. I have 1/2 cup of Fiber One cereal each morning. It made a big difference within a week.

I kept a food journal for at least 3 months. If I had a bad morning or day, I would go back to the prior day and evening's meals to see what might be the cause.

Medications - My docs prefer Lomotil (or the generic equivalent) - this is a prescription medication, so those covered by insurance will find it cheaper than Immodium (over the counter). I tried both and currently feel like the Lomotil works better for me. I was taking as many as 5 tablets a day (2.5mg), cutting back to one or two per day over a month or so. I think most people agree that medication is critical to success in the early going.

I believe seeing a nutritionist is an outstanding suggestion. I am going to do the same, as unfortunaltely I had a hernia develop from all the abdominal surgeries and just had surgery for that 2 weeks ago. In addition, both my surgeon and my gasteroenerologist talked me into my follow-up colonoscopy (because it had been 18 months since my original diagnosis. The doc took a biopsy from the abscess site, which never fully healed. Right now I am back at square one as a result. I see the doc for follow-up to the surgery on Tuesday and plan to discuss this setback. I was against the colonoscopy due to the scheduled hernia surgery, and wish I had stuck with that.

Other folks on a couple of sites have recommened the following web site as helpful. I have not done more than browse it, so I can't say for sure whether there is useful info there, but I will be spending time reading through it to see if I can gather any helpful information for myself.

http://www3.mdanderson.org/depts/hcc/summer99/surgarticle.htm

I will give it some more thought to see if I have other helpful information for you. Prior to my recent setback, I was really starting to feel pleased about my progress, especially onec I stopped trying to think about how I was doing day to day, and started comparing my month to month progress. The first few months were very tough, both physically and emotionally, but it does get better! Let me know if you have more questions!

Dan

lleostomy
I had colorectal cancer in 01, had radiation and chemo. I had resection and tear down, I ended up with them taking all of my colon from infection, and I can not stay hydrated, I make several trips to the hospital, I have had surgery due to scar tissue and blockage. I felt better after my surgery than i feel today. I started having leg and buttock pain, my vascular Dr. said it was from bad circulation from smoking, wrong, I was later told that it was radiation damage to my nerves. I have many problems from the radiation,and have spent years on trying to get better and take my life back, that's all we can do and live life everyday.
My prayers are with you all. Would like to hear from you.

Sincerely

Lilbit