Coping With Colon Resection

My husband had his first colonoscopy at age 55 on March 10, 2008. The discovery of a couple of small polyops and a small mass-like tumor was found to have cancer cells which were discovered in the early stages. He had no indication or symptoms that anything was wrong. I would urge anyone over the age of 50 to get a colonoscopy procedure. On March 31, 2008 my husband had open surgery to remove the diseased part of the upper colon. The doctor said they removed all of it and the surgery went very well.

After a 2 hour recovery, the children and i visited him in his room. He had a lot of abdominal soreness and administered his own pain medication through his iv hookup. He kept saying that his back was hurting and he felt uncomfortable. He was moaning a bit and still tired from the surgery. He has a urinary catheter which the kids were fascinated as to how dad could go in a bag. The nurse let us feed him ice chips as he was very dry and could barely speak. As long as he didn’t feel sick to his stomach, he could graduate to sipping some water. Later that evening he ate a little bit of jello and sip some juice and water.

The day after surgery he is eating more soft foods: soup, jello, juice, pudding, water, ice cream. After dinner he was made to get up and walk a short distance and then sit in a chair for a little while. All part of the recovery process of getting him back to his normal self. He will not be able to come home until he has several successful bowel movements.

So now day three begins and we are constantly reminded that every day things will get better.

I would recommend that while you wait for a loved one to come out of surgery, take someone with you. Even though there are other people in the waiting room, it is very lonely being by yourself. And try not to feel guilty if you are alone and have to run some small errands or check on your kids because this actually makes the time go more quickly and helps alleviate just sitting and waiting and worrying. Keep as positive as you can and keep an open communication about it. This helps tremendously as support from family and friends is wonderful.

Also, i found this website to be so onpoint with what is going on that i referred it to family and friends so that they can have an idea of what is going on. Thank you very much.