Tear in bowel after surgery - help and advice please

Hi . I had a LAR and was readmitted a month after surgery with an infected fluid build up. I was told it is quite common and can sometimes just be a small leakage around one of the staples and, as you suspect, radiotherapy does not help as it weakens the bowel.

Apparently I had a 7 cm infected build up of fluid and they inserted a drain in my right buttock by guided CT, drained a lot off at the same time and told me there wasn’t much left. Sleeping with a plastic tube coming out of my buttock was extremely uncomfortable and having to carry the bag that it was emptying into when I went to empty my stoma was a nightmare. I was eventually sent home with a bag fastened to my leg but it was still filling up. I was then readmitted with lung clots and while I was in, the drain came out. They reinserted it a couple of times but the same thing happened so I demanded a new one. They scoured the hospital and managed to find one to fit and it never worked after that. When I saw the consultant he tried to aspirate it, said it must have finished and removed the drain - that was after 5 weeks. My husband and I thought it seemed a bit of a coincidence that it stopped at the same time that the drain was changed but hey ho! I mentioned it when I saw the surgeon and they did another scan which showed a small amount of collection still there however your body can apparently dispose of it naturally so I started my chemo and they checked my CRP when they did my bloods and it eventually came back down to normal.

I had another infected collection after my reversal but they cleared this by putting me on nil by mouth for several days, then water only, then soup and ice cream etc. I lost a lot of weight although gradually put most of it back on although Im still 10lbs under my pre-diagnosis weight.

Have you tried ringing his Colorectal Support Nurse for a chat? I would have thought he should be starting to put weight back on by now. You could also ring the nurses on here and see if they have any advice on 0808 808 00 00

Hope things start to clear up soon - I remember it being a horrible demoralising time

Take care

Karen x

1. Thank you so much Kareno62 for your reply. Wow you are incredibly strong and stoic having gone through all that.  Coloectoral nurse has tried to reassure me theyve known cases before but of course you still worry.    It's only 6vweeks since his surgery so hopefully he will start to put on bit of weight, but is okay range for his height, just a shock to system and looks so drawn.  Thank you for kindly and honestly sharing your experience with us  and I am so glad you are through it and recovered well.