Hi, just looking for a bit of advice, wondering if anyone can share their own experiences.
My hubby had bowel surgery carried out 2 weeks ago for a rectal tumour (adenocarcinoma) - the procedure was an anterior resection of rectum and anastomosis of colon to rectum. He had a bit of a rough time post surgery as he developed a condition called ileus on Day 2 post op where the bowel was very slow to start working again. There was a real build up of bile, lots of gas and he couldn’t keep any food or liquids down, so ended up on IV fluids with a nasogastric tube being fitted to drain the bile from his stomach, which often had to be aspirated. CT scan and X-rays were carried out but there thankfully wasn’t any blockage. As food was slowly introduced once more, his bowels began to slowly start work again and he was eventually discharged from hospital on Thursday to continue his recovery at home.
He has been advised to eat a low fibre diet so as not to put pressure on the bowel as it heals. His appetite is improving and he’s eating meals, sticking to the kind of foods he’s been asked to. However, he’s finding that he needs to go to the loo a bit more than he did before the operation, often with some urgency. He’s not passing formed stools as such, it’s more like a porridge consistency and not much of it. Otherwise, he’s feeling ok. Understandably he is very tired after coming through what was major surgery and then dealing with ileus in the post op period too, which meant no food at all and left him feeling incredibly weak. He’s actually lost 2 stone in weight since having the surgery.
Is there anyone who’s had this type of operation and who has ended up feeling just like this? The surgeon said it can take up to a year for the bowel to adjust and while I know it’s very early days, hubby is worried about always having to be close to a toilet. He says he just sometimes quickly feels the need to poo, although when he goes it’s usually not much. But it is affecting him a bit emotionally, obviously with the thought of returning to work at some point in the future. He is also worried about the final staging results following the removal of lymph nodes etc.. but these may take some time yet.
Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Roses x
Thanks so much for your reply Karen and also for sending the link. That’s a great help, I’ll show it to hubby later on. I like your description of the bowel being a bit of a diva…pretty much sums it up for hubby right now! 
We can check with the colorectal nurses about loperamide, I think the surgeon may have mentioned that to hubby as well. He’s managing to keep going with the low residue diet, it’s not too bad he says. You just need to tweak things a bit. It’s more the unpredictability of needing to poo that’s bothering him just now, so we’re sticking to very short trips into town which is only a short drive away and make sure we stay close to public toilets. We managed to do this today and he didn’t need to go while we were out. I think just getting a little fresh air and light exercise did him good. Not being tied to the house and the toilet…
Will let you know how things are once we receive the results of final staging 
Take care,
Roses xx
