A month after the operation

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Hello everyone, I hope you are all well as can be on this bank holiday?  its now been a month since my husband had the operation and I am very pleased to tell you that we have had the call from the colorectal nurses to say the the results are back in and he needs no further treatment! No chemo or radiation. In the last two weeks he has had an infection in one of the wounds and needed antibiotics, the seeping from where his rectum was continues, but they said that will stop. I have done my last injection into his tummy, which I am glad is over as it gave me a stress headache every night. Hubby doesn't like needles and couldn't do it himself. He's now lost 3 stone :( but I am hoping a bit of this goes back on when things are more normal. He is still managing with his stoma bag so well, and we have only had one 'poonami' which was hideous at the time but we can laugh about it now. He still has pain where the rectum was but its getting better day by day. Hopefully this is the start of our recovery. Back to see the consultant in June and then I believe he will be monitored for 5 years. Its been a rough year for us both so far, I was diagnosed with some form of reactive arthritis in February, which still isn't completely sorted but its getting better, where I couldn't lift my arms, or use my hands properly. I had to rely on my poor hubby to help me clean after going to the loo, dress me, make all the food, do all the housework etc...  and then March hit us with this diagnosis for him. Thankfully by the time he had the operation I was starting to get better so the roles were then reversed.  Lets hope that the rest of the year brings better news. 

  • Oh my, Mrs W, how stressful it must have been to get this diagnosis when you were still struggling so with the arthritis! What a huge blessing that you started feeling better when his stuff started.

    Poonami. 

    Snork!

    Hugs

    Suz

  • Hi there  ,

    I’m so pleased to be reading that things are improving for your husband & that his team are happy that he needs no further treatment. You’ve both had a rough start to this year but hopefully better things are to come for you both in the second half 2024 & beyond. I’m sure as his recovery continues you’ll find he’ll regain some if not all of the weight he’s lost, he’s had major, major surgery & I would have been more surprised if he hadn’t suffered a drop in weight. I had local resection surgery followed by a course of chemoradiotherapy & I too lost around 3 stone but gradually I put it all back on (trying very hard to get some of it back off again now!!). You’ll both be in my thoughts for his review in June, hoping everything goes well for him. 

    Nicola

  • Thank you so much for your reply, I am sure once he is eating a lot better it will start to come back. I am so used to him having a big appetite and as he said to me its not like he didn't need to lose a bit.

  • Oh it was a hideous explosion of it during a bag change, but instead of standing still and calling for me he decided to shuffle about the bathroom in a panic, meaning it went everywhere! He was stood crying that it had happened, and that he couldn't do anything to help and I was retching into towels trying to hide from the smell of cleaning it. Lessons learned from this, don't eat too much ice cream, it clearly doesn't agree with him now, and put down a puppy pad during the change.