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Problems months after colon resection surgery: What Helps?
Colorectal Cancer | Last Active: Jun 4 9:58am | Replies (521)Comment receiving replies
Hello, I had this surgery on my sigmoid colon on July 21st 2020. After, that, and 6 months of chemo I am coming upon a year. I have just about given up feeling normal again with all the bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea, etc. Some of your testimonies have made me at least feel like I'm not alone. I know one of you said after two years you now feel normal. I don't know if I have another 13 months left in me. I'm 44, still out of work, off chemo just about 3 months. I don't know how to adjust to this with unpredictable embarrassing bowel issues that will certainly interfere with my work. I will say this is the first place where I have found others like me talking about this. Thank you.
Replies to "Hello, I had this surgery on my sigmoid colon on July 21st 2020. After, that, and..."
Hello @brian77 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I am so glad you have found this group to normalize your feelings and realize you are not alone in your journey post colon surgery. Reaching out for support when recovery doesn't go like you may have thought is actually a really big step so bravo on that note.
What are the main pain points of this process that you would like to connect with other members on to support you?
I too had surgery in 2020(August) and still have pain around the repaired site when digesting most meals. I am finally spending less time in the bathroom. The first year i was in there 6-10 times a day. Luckily I work from home. Hopefully, you will gain some regularity with time and learn to balance when to eat and to venture out. Hang in there!
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Hello. Although I didnt have same surgery as you nor chemo I did have radiation internal and external in 1985 for cancer of cervix stage 2 and eventually started my journey of late stage radiation damage to pelvis.... radiation damage to bladder etc. and the dreaded awful diarrhea... its been around 20 years and then C.Diff 2018 and fecal incontinence since... unless someone goes through this unpredictable, yes embarrassing, smelly, messy, PAINFUL, almost daily issue its hard for them to understand how life-altering it is.
Yes, you are so right that its a bit of a relief to be able to come on this site and discuss this and often others will offer some of their ways to cope. I am now 77 and only thing that helps is Imodium..sometimes, and my diet is plain and I could go on .
But this is about you: I hope that your body heals more as time goes by, even to the point of hopefully going back to work (I hope you have alternate income on which to live in the meantime as $$ stress doesn't help on top of it) and that one day there will not only be a "cure" for cancer but treatments that, unfortunately, keep us alive but so affect our quality of life. Take care. (p.s. I always keep with me a bag with toiletries in it no matter where I go so at least when have accident can clean up and keep going - although travel is now out of the question). J.