Coping With Colon Resection

I am doing better than I had expected. I had 8 inches of my colon removed near the rectum for a large polyp that was benign. The worst part of all of it was the drainage tubes that I woke up with to keep bile from getting to the newly stapled colon. After 2 days it was removed and my husband said I was a new person after that. I hated that part.

I’m thinking I must have had a reaction to the tubing as I filled 8 of the little plastic bags they connect to your night table with tissue. I had to cough up phlem constantly over those 2 days and felt like I was having to reswallow the tubing each time. My throat hurt like crazy. So after the tubes were removed my recovery started and I passed gas on the 4th day. I had a fever of 103 for a day but got that cleared up and went home on the 5th day. Way earlier than I expected. I hadn’t even had soft food yet. I had over 50 staples in my abdomen which they removed before I was released. The drainage tube in my abdomen was removed also and was way less painful than I had expected.

So this is my 3rd day home and I am doing quite well. My only concern is that I am having about 10-15 bowel movements a day and the stool is very small. Like a kitten might have done it. The consistency is good, not hard and not runny so I guess it is ok. I am weening myself off of the pain meds as I don’t like taking them. I was taking one every 3 hours and now I take one ever 4-5 hours. No food has been a problem yet but I am being very careful of what I eat. The first few BMs were very painful(a lot of gas with it) Today I ate meat for the first time and it was chicken. I’ll see how that does and if ok I will try beef. I had a choc milk shake this afternoon and no problem. Hope it all continues like this and I will be a happy camper.