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Second Surgery
Waiting:
After the chemo was complete, again I had to wait at least 4 weeks before surgery, again to let my intestines
heal from the chemo so I wouldn't simply bleed to death during surgery.
Surgery:
This surgery was actually a group of surgeries:
- Take down the ileostomy
- Free up the intestinal adhesions
- Removee the IV port
Without the adhesions, this surgery would have been about two hours long. However, freeing the adhesions stretched it out to
around six hours. And because there were adhesions all over the place, I was again opened up extensively, along almost the entire
length of my initial surgery scar.
Coming out of surgery I had a large incision for adhesion correction, the incision remaining from the ileostomy, and an incision
remaining from the IV port. Plus the IV with morphine pump, a urinary catheter, and a nasal tube for the stomach pump.
Recovery:
Even though my surgery was quite extensive due to the adhesions, my general recovery was much less taxing than recovery after the first surgery.
No post-operative ileus, puking, or that sort of thing.
After a few days they removed the stomach pump and I began eating again. Then, because my bag was gone and my intestines reconnected,
poo began flowing through my large intestine after an 8-month absence, and my redesigned pooper got to start working again.
At first it was pure diarrhea, but after a couple days things firmed up and I had at least a little control. From a philosophical
perspective I decided to veiw my new "control issues" as an anal-retentive step backwards to potty training as a baby.
People often say, "If only I had it to do over again..." Well, in this case, I got that second chance.
Now, as time passes, I'm learning to select my diet for the happiness of my butthole colon. What they don't like I don't eat. Some days I have only
one reasonably formed bowel movement. Other days they're numerous and/or splattery. But from only a few weeks post-op I always had sufficient
control to avoid a public mess. I could say I've never had an "embarrassing" event, but this wouild be misleading; after what I've been through,
embarrassment is no longer in my repertoir of emotions. Perhaps the most difficult part of the learning process is simple relaxation so that
turds can exit via gravity rather than by a bunch of straining.
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7 weeks post-op: many days are very good, but perhaps two days per week have 10+ tiny bowel movements.
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12 weeks post-op: continued improvement. Many bowel movements are "just like old times." All can be relatively normal for several days in
succession. However, there are still those "10 tiny turds" days, perhaps 1-2 days weekly. Lately I've had some significant stomach pain, and
reverting to a relatively liquid diet plus sleeping on my left side seems to help. It may be that left-side sleeping helps open up the bend
at the top of the ascending colon, which is now relatively free to collapse on itself. It may also be caused by diet
(various nuts and large steaks), but
all of this can take awhile to sort out. Meanwhile I've gained about 15 pounds and am doing 50
mile bike rides with the fast guys again. I'm also lifting weights and can once again fling 50 pound dog food bags with ease
(no need to call mom for this task anymore).
Residual neuropathy from chemo seems to be subsiding VERY gradually. It was quite painful for awhile, but is now simply a source of mild
clumsiness.
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4 months post-op: bowel obstruction in small intestine, probably in vicinity of the illeostomy reconnection. This meant another trip to the
emergency room, morphine, puking, and pain like having a baby. Probably this is caused by new adhesions. However, I don't want another surgery
to fix the problem, so I'm back on a relatively liquid diet for awhile. My oncologist is encouraging me do get off the liquidy diet, but I
really don't know why. If it works, it works. I bought a juicer and now am juicing all my veggies. Previously I enjoyed eating about a one
pound rare steak with raw carrots. Now, if I eat red meat, it is in much smaller amounts, and the carrots are juiced.
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6 months post-op: my guts seem to be working well. The hand/feet neuropathy continues to improve very slowly. My handwriting is almost back to
its pre-neuropathy state, but my fingers and feet still feel like they're a little frost-bitten or suffer from a pinched nerve. Overall, if there
was one thing I could "take back" in this entire experience, it wouldn't be the surgeries or the puking or the pooping on myself, but the
neuropathy. Some years ago the chemo duration was a full year rather than a month, and based on my experience, the "year people" must have be
truly messed up when it was all done -- perhaps losing the feeling in their entire bodies if the treatment continued unabated. But then a
clinical study showed the 6-month outcome was the same as 1-year, so the treatment was trimmed to 6 months. The neuropathy I experienced
then begs the question "what about only 4 months?"
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