Surgeries for colon removal and hernia repair at same time

I had my j-pouch removed, ileostomy created, anus removed, and total hysterectomy/ oophorectomy in one surgery.

This meant it was a bigger, longer surgery, but it was only one surgery. I spent 5 days in the hospital and was back at work in 8 weeks - which is how long it took for me to be able to sit comfortably. I was pretty healthy going in.

If I had to do it again I would do the same thing.

Thanks. That’s what I’m thinking. Do it all at once. Longer initial recovery time and higher chance of infection, but it will be over if everything well.

In 2014 , they removed 100% of my colon, multiple pre-cancerous tumors. They removed colon, built a Hartsman Pouch, and reconnected intestine to rectum. They did this in 1 surgery. This did not go well. 1 of the sutures did not hold. After 24 hrs they knew something was up, but because I have SLE, the blood work was all over the place, hiding the infection. Shortly after, they placed me in an induced coma. Approx 6 days later, I developed Severe Peritonitis. They took me into surgery, cut it wide open, and started cleaning out the infection. I had developed Sepsis, but during the surgery, I went full blown Septic Shock. Placed on full ventilator, but then my heart stopped. Placed a wire thru artery in neck and down into heart, external pace maker. Shortly after the kidneys shut down and placed on dialysis. To top it off, they NG plugged, and I threw up. Mechanical Aspirated, so they had to pull the vent, clear the lungs and reinflate 1 if them and re-vent. Due to all this, I was in surgery for over 30 hours. My family was fricking out and they finally told them what was going on, on told them to be prepared for the worse. They said nobody survives this amount of trauma. Well here I am, almost 12 years later. Since then I have endured an additional 8 surgeries, repairing multiple hernias, had to remove gall bladder which died due to those toxic synthetic antibiotics. They ate the lower vertebrae at L3, L4, L5 and S1 disc . The infection encapsulated the lower spine causing the deterioration. I developed spinal meningitis, severe but after 3 lumbar punctures they never could confirm if it was a bacterial or viral infection. What cause it, they never could determine. I went back to work 10 months after the start of this and worked another 5. But due to all the additional surgeries and seeing 10! different specialists, my employer grateful gave me full disability, and said go enjoy the rest of what you have left. 4 years ago It was found I have UTUC, Urothelial Carcinoma. What's crazy is I was 54 yrs old and this cancer is a late life stage cancer, 70's and 80 yr olds get it. This hospital organization could not figure out why or tell me how I got it.
They removed the kidney and ureter tube, which due to the massive scar tissue, took the Urology surgeon and a Trauma surgeon 14.5 hrs to remove. This surgery was harder to recover than the original one. Additionally, due to scar tissue I've had 2 other surgeries to repair a partially restricted bowel. Total time to diagnosis, find and repair those 2 was 2.5 years. Unfortunately, right now I'm going this again,, strangulated bowel somewhere, so I'm on a liquid diet while they go thru the test to find, and then they'll have to cut me again.
This initial procedure has a high complication rate with a 30% mortality rate after 90 days.
I survived it all, but it's been a fight that I'm still fighting right now.
I recommend anyone that is getting this done to do your own research, ask your surgeon lots of questions and get a second option and compare the 2 plans that they recommend.
I didn't and now I see most never do the surgery in 1 operation. It's mostly ualways done in 2 or 3 steps with a Ostomy bag for up to 6 months to allow everything inside heal before they induce food thru it. Now, some surgeons do it in 1 stage, but I highly recommend not to. If you do develop a leak, this infection is the worse one your body can get. And then all the complications you'll endure from this type of infection is just insane.
So, this is my recommendation from someone who's dealt with it. I will never 100% recover from the complications of this infection, and will continue to have additional surgeries to just get by.
Thanxs for taking time to read, but I believe it's important for people to hear what can go wrong.

So sorry to hear what you’ve gone through. In my particular case, the
entire colon and rectum will be removed because the surgeon thinks it’s too
diseased to be sutured. She will do the removal, and another surgeon will
repair the hernia immediately after she’s done. I got a third surgeon to
provide his opinion. He was initially skeptical of doing everything at
once, but after talking to the other surgeons he came on board. So that’s
the direction I expect to follow. There are certainly more risks involved,
but also more rewards, particularly one and done

@stork1
It's absolutely what your comfortable doing,,
I just wanted to give you the other side of the coin,, sorry it took so much to convey, but it was just that messy.
I wish you the best on the procedure and will say a prayer for you ,, and ask Our Lord and Savior to watch over the surgeons for perfect guidance and control.
Feel free to let me know how it all went, and if you don't want to, I understand,,
Take Care ,, 🙏❤️🙏

@stork1

To date I have not had any surgery related infections. I've had over 20 surgeries total, with about 7 or 8 of them being abdominal surgeries.

I would talk to the surgeon about the risks/incidents of post surgical infections for the type of surgery you are having, if you haven't already.

I want to thank you with profound appreciation that you took the time to revisit what is a very complicated and difficult health journey. While it is unlikely that someone else will have all of the developments you had, I think that people reading you will identify with one or multiple segments of your events. I know I did. Several.
It is so true that people need to hear what can go wrong because it can and it does. Your recommendation to research and take one step at a time is priceless. I am grateful that you are here to share your experience.

Just a quick update, I finally got an appointment to see the Trauma Surgeon that worked on me to remove the kidney. 5 days and I can't wait,, Ive lost over 10 lbs since posting the first one. My body is Wasting, it's eating everything it can for the nutrients I cannot feed myself. I look and feel horrible.
I pray every night for God to give this surgeon the strength and guidance to go ahead and perform it. As all the surgeons that looked at me when I was admitted, and said Sorry, but we're not going to open you up due to the massive Adhesions,, I don't think he will either. I'm really pissed and depressed over this, and kick myself everyday for not researching the original surgery and allowing them to do it as a single operation.
I feel even stronger against doing it and can't stress enough what can happen and it's unrepairable. I'm stuck with it for life, and probably will be the cause of my death !!!