Reversal

HI 

Good news that your daughter has progressed enough to be considered for her reversal.

If you open up this LINK it will take you to the Colostomy Association's information on  reversals.

It's in two parts the perspective of the surgeon and the second part by the stoma nurse and may answer some of your questions or it might give you an idea what you might want to ask the surgeon.

I've not had a reversal but from what I understand the actual operation doesn't take as long as the first one. As you will appreciate each person is different when it comes to recovery but if your daughter follows all the advice from the nurses regarding eating, resting and exercise it will help with the recovery.

I am hopefully that some of the members who've been through it will come back with their own personal tips on how to make things easier from your daughter.

I'm sorry I can't answer the question about the infection and why it occured but again maybe someone will have an answer for you, if no one knows you are very welcome to go to our Ask a Nurse group page and ask the question.

I hope everything goes well with daughter and it's a success.

Ian

Hi and lovely to hear from you again. 

Contrast xray - consists of a tube up your bottom which they put dye through so they can check the join. After this your daughter will be shown to a private bathroom to sit on the toilet and the dye will come out along with a few mucus plugs. It’s a strange sensation having your bottom back in use but do not, I repeat, do not rush away! If she thinks that things have finished then tell her to wait another 10 minutes as I found there was more to come. The hospital provided a pad to wear in the way home but after about 20 mins I was ok.

Reversal - yes it is a much smaller op and a lot easier to recover from but take things steady on the food front to begin with. There are quite a few posts on the Ileostomy page which you could have a look - I’ve attached a link to one below

https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_experiences/ileostomy_and_colostomy_discussions/f/ileostomy_and_colostomy_discussions-forum/168926/stoma-reversal---baby-wipes-and-or-barrier-cream

Hope all goes well

Take care

Karen x

Hi ,

It is great news that she needs no further treatment. Hopefully not too long until they can do the reversal.

For the x-ray, I would recommend to take a sanitary pad (can be provided by the hospital) and a spare ileostomy bag. If you want to be super-prepared, a pair of clean underwear and a large square pad to cover the car seat (which you can also get from the hospital).

But I want to second what Kareno62 said about not rushing away from hospital after the x-ray. I had contrast coming out from both my bag and bottom. I just drained the bag and did not need to change it. But for the contrast coming out the bottom I ended up making myself comfortable on the toilet with a book to read for 10 minutes or so. And then I spent a further 30 minutes in the hospital canteen just to make double sure everything is out before setting off for home. In the end I needed none of the spare pads, bags or knickers that I mentioned above. The key thing was not leaving the hospital too quickly.

My other top tip for the x-ray is to make sure the hospital gown is tied properly. They ask you to turn this way and that, and I ended up almost turning out of the gown, almost showing the radiographer more than just my bottom!

The surgery itself is quite quick (only about 1 hour) and generally much quicker to recover from than the resection. I was in hospital for three days (compared to five for the resection) although I have heard of others being discharged after a day or two. Basically they want to be sure that you can pass wind and stool before discharge. But even though it is not such a major operation, the same basic rules of recovery apply, i.e. take it slowly, no heavy lifting, etc.

And as Karen mentioned, take things easy on the food front to begin with. Start with low residue foods (i.e. not high fibre foods), and then slowly introduce fibre. I started eating fruits and veggies like bananas, canned peaches, carrots and sweet potato in the first week, but held off on things like beans and sweetcorn for a bit longer.

Regarding the infection, I am no clinician, but I am wondering whether she might have had a low grade infection for a while that has only now started to show itself? Low grade infections does not have the usual symptoms such as fever, redness, puss, swelling or generally feeling unwell, so is difficult to diagnose. And different types of bacteria grows at different rates. Whilst reading up on low grade infections, I read about one particular bacteria where symptoms might only appear 3 months after surgery.

I had a low grade infection shortly after my resection, and the only symptom was redness (also around the belly button, coincidentally). The first two GP's I saw was adamant that I did NOT have an infection. A day after I visited the second one, the abscess burst (it was flat under the skin and still covered by surgical glue, which is why no-one spotted it, not even me). So much for not having an infection.

At least she has the antibiotics now, so that should get on top of any infection. Have they taken a swab to test which bacteria it is?

All the best,

Yolande

Thanks everyone for the reply’s and advice . Hopefully the infection will have cleared up before the surgery which she’s due to have on September 3rd . She has her pie op tomorrow so I have a list of questions prepared .

thanks for the tips about the contrast x Ray  , we were planning on doing some shopping after it but I’m wondering now if that’s a good idea , we might be better to just head home ? 

Thanks again

Hi

Just wondering how Laura’s contrast xray went. Is it looking ok for the reversal? Does she have any top tips for anyone having one in the future?

Karen x

Hi Karen , 

it went ok , they said everything looked fine . She found it quite uncomfortable to be honest , she’s had a lot of cramping both yesterday and today though she says it’s not  as bad today .  It only took about 20 minutes so not too bad . She did find that her output became very watery after it but it seems to have settled down today . 

Shes going for the iron infusion tomorrow so hopefully she will be ok then fir surgery next Tuesday .