Diverticulitis surgery pain level

Hi Mel,
Get a great colorectal surgeon! You will be fine ! As long as your core is strong, you will heal quickly. I was scared to death, but it's not so bad and after a year and a half I am free of pain and totally healed and happy with the choice I made. Best of luck!

I was hospitalized with diverticulitis and a micro-perforation in April.  5 days of antibiotics at hospital then 2 weeks of antibiotics at home.  Doc said I had to get better or I would need colostomy.  He also said that a colon resection would prevent future problems like this so we scheduled it for June 8. Great surgeon, did laparosopic with two small incisions and one about 3-1/2 inches.  He said the sigmoid colon was still very inflamed but felt like it went well.  I went home 5 days later and seemed to be improving well.  I was eating soft bland foods.  I was also told to take Colace (a stool softener) to prevent constipation from the pain pills. 

Went back to surgeon on the 26th for checkup.  Told him my stools were still small and BMs were still a bit painful but not too bad.  I wanted to go back to work so he ok'd it.  He told me to start slowly adding more solid foods to my diet but avoid high fiber foods until after I see him again 3 weeks later. 

Went back to work on Thurs the 28th and that's when things started going bad again.  I realized that I had been having 3 or 4 BMs a day while at home and each one took a while of sitting in the bathroom.  I couldn't do this at work (I've always had a hard time with BMs away from home but this was the worst ever - I just couldn't do it!)  I had cut down to just one colace a day before this but now went up to 2 a day trying to have a BM at work.  By Friday night (only my second day back at work) I felt miserably constipated and felt a lot of pain in the colon area, so I took a chance and ate a small helping of veggies.  BIG MISTAKE.  Saturday morning I was having excruciatingly painful BMs.  Sunday was a little better but not much.  Monday I went back to work and again felt a need to have a BM but couldn't do it.  I took 2 colace that day also (but no more veggies).  No BMs at work, but spent several painful hours in the bathroom that night.

Now it's Tuesday.  I called in sick today.  After my seventh painful BM this morning, I called my Dr.  and he wanted me to go get some lab tests done (to check for infection I think?)  I was about to go in but kept thinking about two things - not being able to BM at work and getting backed up from it, plus something about the colace - so I looked up colace and found out you're not supposed to take it more than one week.  Prolonged use can cause constipation, diarrhea, pain in the peri-anal area and more.  I was so sure that these two issues were my problem that I called my Doc back.  I didn't get to talk to him but the nurse agreed with me and we've decided to let my bowel rest for two days at home, with no colace, and see if there's an improvement.  Of course if I get worse or start running fever I will go to the hospital.  (This also scares me a little because the initial infection I was hospitalized with had NO FEVER so how would I know if this is an infection?)

Bottom line - if you're going to have this surgery, do LOTS of research and ask LOTS of questions.  Research every drug you take, even if it's over the counter.  Find lists of safe foods to eat and foods to avoid (I finally did this, and found some contradicting info - I finally decided if ANYONE said it was bad, don't eat it.)  As you get better, add new foods in ONE AT A TIME then wait to see if it agreed with you.  And don't get in too big of a hurry to go back to work, especially if you normally have problems having a BM in public bathrooms like I do.   I've talked to my boss about the problem (how embarrassing - discussing toilet habits with your boss??  wow) and we've decided that I'll just work half days until I KNOW I'm better.  This way I'm not holding so much in my bowels when I get home from work.

Several posters mentioned everyone is different - HOW TRUE!!  I would give my right arm to be able to eat a good salad or stir-fry, if I knew the pain wouldn't kill me, but I can't.  I will post a follow up in a few days.  Best wishes to all who have had or are soon to have this surgery.

I'm in the hospital again. Turns out I have Clostridium difficile - a really nasty infection and difficult to treat. After reading the risk factors for C. Diff. I'm surprised my doctors weren't aware of my high risk and expecting such a thing! Just one more thing for everyone to be aware of - colon surgery is a risk factor for c. diff. I had other risks factors also. If I had known about this sooner, I'm sure we would have diagnosed this sooner and maybe I would be feeling better by now.

I was dianosed with diverticulitis at age 41.  I've had 10 epasodes of this painful stuff and now I'm going to have it removed.  I'm alittle nerveous.  Just wondering with me waiting to long how much of the colon will  have to be removed.  Hopefully everything goes well.  I'm so tiered of being bloated and looking like I'm pregant with twins.  I'm exercising 4 days aweek so my surgery goes good. 

 

I am 6 days home from the hospital after having 12" of my colon removed due to diverticulitis. I am 41 and otherwise healthy and active. This disease silently crept up on me, my family and friends. I include my family and friends as my experience would have been different without a support team and God. My situation began officially on 6/30 culminating in surgery on 7/17 with what ended up a 10 day hospital stay due to sensitivity to narcotics. For a healthy person this diagnosis and quick turnaround has been scary to say the least. I researched as much as I could in the short time I had to prepare for the unknown and came across this forum. I thank each of you for sharing as your stories helped to level set expectations for my surgery. I am typically pretty private but promised myself I would contribute to this site post-op. Pain...pretty intense. You have to will yourself to move and increase your activity as well as reduce your medication intake as tolerable to remove the mask. I needed to feel the pain to understand my limitations. Ultimately I was forced off the narcotics because they made nauseous and vomit which was not good with the 4 incisions. So I was put on toradol instead of a narcotic, including Percocet while in the hospital and released only with Motrin. Motrin did not touch the pain and I discontinued after only 2 days. When my staples were removed 2 days ago I had not taken any pain Meds for 3 days. Today 6 days removed from hospital care I am able to walk in my neighborhood and manage the steps in my home pretty well. The surprising pain that has not been discussed in this forum as yet was from the removal of the JP drain. No one prepared me for that pain. It may have been more impactful for me because I was not on a narcotic and it was removed 9 days after surgery. Admittedly it was temporary, but it was PAINFUL. So, my thoughts on the surgery? I had a great medical team and so far so good. I didn't have options so I am simply going through the experience. It reduced the risk of perforation and sepsis so I support the doctors recommendation and do not regret my decision to accept the recommendation. Future: now I am researching the prognosis aspect of diverticular disease. Should I stay away from the foods which caused the inflammation and infection to cause the diverticulitis to prevent a recurrence of developing diverticulitis? Am I now prone to developing diverticulitis? I plan to ask my surgeon but wanted to bring the topic to this forum. The surgeon treats once we get there, but how do we reduce the risk of getting back here... Thoughts?

Bossie - has your surgeon scheduled a colonoscopy? I had one before my surgery so the surgeon had an idea in advance what he was up against. I don't think it directly relates to how long you've had diverticulitis, he will simply remove the part that is giving you trouble.

LHardy - After you are fully healed you should go on a high fiber diet and avoid fat fried foods. You know what's good for you - fresh fruits and veggies, brown bread, brown rice, etc.

And I will repeat myself regarding c.diff - colon surgery puts you at higher risk for c.diff. if you get better after the surgery, then start getting worse, like I did, get tested for c.diff as soon as possible. I wish I had known about it sooner.

I am freaking out a little after reading all these posts.  My husband (61) ended up in the ER this weekend with an attack of Diverticulitis.  He didn't even know he had Diverticulosis.  It came on him all at once.  He was fine and the next minute he was in horrible pain.   The next morning we went to the Walk-In and the doctor there sent him to the ER.  There he was given a CT scan and it was found he had a bad infection in his colon and it looks like he has a hole in his colon.  He is in the hospital now on antibiotics and it's been just 2 days but he doesn't seem to be getting better.  His still has fever and although his white blood cell count has gone down his fever just won't go away.  He's also in a lot of pain, A LOT.  The doctor has said that he wants the infection to clear up and for my husband to come back in 6 weeks for the surgery.  That way he won't have to have a bag.  But if the infection doesn't clear up then he'll have to do the surgery now and he'll have to have a bag for 3 to 6 months.  I don't know if he or I for that matter can take him having a colostomy bag.  I also, after reading many of these posts, just don't know if he can handle the pain.  He's not very good with pain.  He is miserable now and hearing all the horror stories here about how much pain everyone was in after surgery is scaring me.  I just don't know how all this will play out.  I just wish this had never happened. 

Aargh! Had a long reply posted and it got dumped while trying to login...

Anyway, ISSIE - please don't freak out. It takes 2 days for the antibiotics to START working. And if the infection is bad, he may not feel much better for a few days after that. Give it a few days.

And don't freak out on my post about all the pain after the surgery. I was guessing this or that was causing it, but I was wrong. It was a c.diff infection but because I was immuno-depressed (rheumatoid arthritis and the meds I take for it) I didn't run a fever so I didn't know it was an infection.

Most likely he will start feeling better in the next few days, then they will send him home on antibiotics and a limited diet.  Follow the diet and don't add more than one new food per day, to see how he tolerates it.

After the colon surgery, the diet is very important for the first 2 weeks or so, then start adding new foods (one a day) and see how well he tolerates them. Most people get back to a normal diet pretty quickly, some have trouble with certain foods. it will probably be a long while before he tolerates high fiber foods, and he should probably avoid foods that cause diverticulitis symptoms for the rest of his life (high fat foods, small seeds, nuts).

Don't expect infection, but be on the lookout for it after the surgery and get medical attention immediately if he was getting better then starts getting worse. My biggest mistake was waiting too long when I did that.

Keep your spirits up, and his too. He needs your support now. We'll support you. Post back if you have any more questions or concerns. I keep an eye on this topic and will respond.

Good advice to those reading this blog. Trust me, no one wants to get c-diff! Its all over the hospitals now and what makes most people vulnerable is the massive amount of antibiotics they give you for post op. Like Chemo for cancer, the anitbiotics killall of your good flora and the "shields are down" as it were, and BAM! - enter c-diff. I got it last year after a lapaoscopic apendix operation. Perpetual diahreea - like 20-30 x a day. Think of dirve heaves only in yur G.I. Take probiotics everyday - they help maintain the good flora.

Hi I am 51 but I have been having problems with diverticutilits for about 12 years. I have had about 13 attacks each one getting worse til I was hospitalized in Mar than again in aug with an attack in july that i could stay in hospital due to obligations so they gave me iv meds n sent me home....I am due to have surgery Sept 27 n these post has helped my understanding of the surgery n after surgery....I am not getting the main surgery i am getting laposcopy surgery which i understand is alot less pain...will post my after surgery thoughts later....good luck to all of you

 

Surgery is the only option to deal with Diverticulitis once it has progressed to where you are hospitalized for its attacks. There is really no option to surgery. I just had the laproscopic surgery on the 10th of Sept at UCI medical center. Surgery was very successfull i came home from the hospital on Friday - 4 days later. Pain is manageable. Hopefull that the long term implications are that Diverticulitis is a disease I used to have.

Just had the surgery an sorry to say it wasnt a pleasant ordeal. Be prepared to hurt, abdominal surgery is painful because it seems you use your stomach to do everything, im going on 3 months after surgery an still am tender. Try an not be scared of something you cant control, you will feel so much better once you get through the first part.

HI, 49 and having lapra. on Nov. 5 . I've been having attacks since 2003.  After 10 years of dealing with this disease,  I'm scared of what they might find in there!  I'm not so concerned with the pain aspect,  but for how long the pain will be there.  Xmas is just around the corner and as we all know ,  so are all the goodies.  

Are you getting only part of the large intestine removed or all? I have been through both. Part 10 years ago and all of it with a "J Pouch" (instead of the bag) 2 months ago. I recovered well with the first surgery. This last one has been hell. If you are getting part removed, follow a strict diet so that it does not reoccur as it did with me. I thought it was gone and could not come back, wrong! With this last surgery I was in the hospital 23 days, home for 10 days and back for another 7 as I could not eat, constant nausea and abdominal pain. 20 trips to the bathroom day and night. I have lost 15 lbs, down to 109 and still have problems with appetite. I have also become depressed over the lack of quality of my life, out of work for 2 months. I know it has only been 2 months but it seems much longer. I am praying that things will get much better soon, before I starve. Do your research, get a second opinion. Just be informed. I am over 50 so I probably will not heal as a younger person would.