My husband has been told his bowel cancer is complex and the surgery will take a minimum of 8-10 hours if no complications.
He has a sigmoid colon cancer and satellite tumours in the lymph nodes.
it is close to the ileus artery and pelvic brim so very complex and requires a urologist surgeon to assist.
The risks and complications are huge but he can’t have chemo as after his first cycle Folfox caused a potential mini stroke.
He will be a minimum of 2-3 weeks in hospital if no complications.
He will go straight to ICU.
Has anybody else had complex major bowel cancer surgery? Has anybody had an extremely long operation?
Hi Beanie2024
I noticed that you hadn’t had a reply yet, and although my operation was different it was very complex, so I thought I’d give you my experience. It wasn’t as long as your husband is facing but friends who have had my type of surgery(total pelvic exenteration) have had longer operations than I did-one was 14 hours, so it does happen.
I remember being in the ante room just before my surgery, having an epidural done and it was mid morning. When I woke, it was evening, so it was probably around 7 or 8 hours and I had 3 surgeons working on me as I had my rectum and bladder removed as well as all of my reproductive system. I needed 2 units of blood during the surgery and I was given a 30% chance of surviving it.
I went straight to the high dependency unit for 2 days, and was in hospital for 2 weeks. My surgeons were extremely skilled, so the point I wanted to make is that I am still here 4.5 years after the surgery, and had no serious complications.
It will be a very long and difficult day for you waiting around- that was hard for my partner. But I really hope that everything goes well and your husband can get through this and be on the road to recovery.
Sarah xx
