Long term effects from a low anterior resection

If it works, meditate!
Good luck to you.
I'm thinking of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane!

HAHAHA ! some life on this thread at last .. don't forget to carry your parachute... just in case!

Do not worry. You will wake up without any pain. I had epidural analgesia, a form of regional analgesia involving injection of drugs through a catheter placed into the epidural space.

/ on your back /. No pain involved during the procedure and no any discomfort. It is taken off after few days and you will be given some painkillers. If you do not need painkiller, try to avoid them as they usually make people constipated.

I wish you all the best and speedy recovery.

Hi
My operation was 6 Y ago also. I still have pain sometimes when passing movements. Doctors did not tell us that, and when asked they are "surprised" that the pain is there.

It's been only four weeks since my "LAR" procedure.  I am experiencing the same digestive challenges, and my curiosity is what led me to this forum.  Although I will not go so far as to say that I am not disappointed in learning what with which I will have to live, I am surprised by those who say they would not have the surgery if they knew the ramifications.  My doctor did not warn me of what to expect.  As I see it, my life has been extended for another 10-20 years and I can live with the consequences of more visits to, and some discomfort on, the toilet.

Hi everyone,
I think people tend to stop looking at the blog when they are feeling better.  Thought I would share my thoughts on my recovery from LAR.
This is a traumatic disruption to the body.  What I have read about the digestive system is fascinating. Take a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enteric_nervous_system 

Taking out a piece of the system is bound to cause problems.  I experienced many of the symptoms that are described in this blog, but clearly everyone has a slightly different experience.  I did not have an eliostomy.  I did end up with a small fistula that appears to be resolving itself.  Thats a pocket that formed at the suture site.

My surgery was October 25th 2011.  I was told that recovery would take months to where some consistency return to bowel function.

This surgery is invasive and complicated. I can now look back at my 9 months of recovery and see the small improvements that were hardly noticeable at the time, which have now added up to a significant improvement in my quality of life. I got better but it was a slow process.  In my case my body will never be the same as before but my issues are less and less of a problem.  Whew!

Early on, when I felt the most miserable, my wonderful wife suggested that a good approach was to say "This is how it is today, tomorrow it will be different." this seemed to help me accept the state I was in and expect improvement as time went on.  

This seemed to work for me.  I still have bad days where I end up on the toilet 10 times in a day. Thankfully this is happening less and less. At work, sometimes I have to trot to the bathroom while clinching my sphincter.....fun.   When I speak to my wife about my day, I refer to my visits to the toilet as "office visits":-)

As time goes by, there will be longer and longer periods when you are NOT thinking about the surgery or the pain and discomfort. In the midst of it, your not sure that will happen.  It does.

By the way, if I haven't mentioned it before, carry a bottle of Balneol lotion with you at all times.  When you have lots of "office visits" you can wear out your back door until you get fissures.  Ouch! Kind of like dishpan butt.   Balneol is an over the counter item.  It's expensive but it works really well.  CVS carries "Hygienic Cleansing Lotion".  It's a few dollars cheaper and works just fine. Don't use baby wipes!  They end up drying out the skin and make things worse. 

Oh and by all means buy the best TP you can afford!


All the best,
I hope you have a faster recovery than I did!

Craig

could be the food that you eat that blocks you up. Try some fiber to loosen you up.

I had LAR 2 months back chemos are over now radiotherapies are going on but there is great problem in passing out stools and i have pain in lower abdomen now everynight.
please suggest me what to do and why is this so?

Hi Mandy,
I was fortunate not to need chemo or radiation therapy. I can tell you what I did. Early on diet helped a lot. I ate lots of soups with fiber and used a bit of metamucil. I don't like prunes or prune juice but it does help as well. Later i had the opposite problem with loose stool and urgency at inopportune moments.

Make sure when you make changes, that you wait long enough to allow your system to adapt to the new situation.

Your doctor or nurse might suggest a different laxative to take.

I can tell you that very gradually my system adapted to my new plumbing. I'm approaching 1 year since my surgery on October 25th and am feeling good. I've been travelling and recently we went to Mexico and went scuba diving. I did not think I would be able to do that again.

all the best to you.
Craig

I'm 10 weeks post op sigmoid colectomy without lymph node involvement. Yes, frequent BMs is part of the current new normal. 10-12+ is common for me. Surgeon said the body will find its new normal which may take up to a year. I balance things with psyllium seed in the morning and magnesium in the evening. The stools are formed, not loose. The urge to eliminate is strong. I, too, had half of the rectum removed whch is the storage place and brains of the elimination process. The most difficult time period for me was the 3-6 week period. You will feel better as time passes.

Minimal pain post op although headache from the anesthesia. I walked down the hospital corridor the next morning solo. I'm 10 weeks post sigmoid colectomy which was performed laparascopically with a 3" open incision above the pubic bone, barely visible now.

Preparation H wipes have been a butt saver. With frequent trips to "the office" they work wonderfully in avoiding irritation.

Hey guys, 

 I had a liver metastasis (one single lesion) so underwent a Liver resection back in May and have recovered well, since then the urge to visit 'the office' has become less, the BM is still irregular and several times (8 times is normal right?) . But that's something I can live with. 

Recently I watched 'Forks over Knives' & the Gerson Miracle, which are  documentaries on food habits, since then I have turned myself into a complete vegetarian eating more (and more) salads and green vegetables, completely cut off my coffe/tea intake (though I used honey instead of sugar) and  exercise (walk 30 minutes in the morning) regularly, I have been feeling pretty great. I mean these are small changes but they are working out great. I finally figured out that 'it's what you eat that either saves you or kills you'. So watch your diet, especially when you have undergone LAR, get off meat and you should definitely see the change in your BM.

 

Good luck and God Bless 

In May 2011, I was diagnosed with rectal cancer. This was quickly followed by 30 radiation treatments, combined with chemo and LAR in September. I had the ileostomy reversed in November and started 9 rounds of Folfox chemo in December, which finished in April. I have had many of the same bowel issues described by others on this site but assumed that they were due to the chemo. I was very surprised when chemo was over but my bowels still wouldn't behave.

In my search for solutions I started working with a dietician who taught me the difference between soluble and insoluble fibre.  It helped immensely to eat more soluble fibre  and less insoluble. She also had me eliminate most foods from my diet except bread, cheese, peanut butter, banana, lean proteins (no red meat, fish and chicken only) and rice. This almost fixed the issues. Then I started to add foods back in one by one, just like introducing new foods to a baby. I kept a food diary and made note of the foods the irritated my bowels. It has been a long process but has really helped to reduce the urgency. 

If I am going out for dinner or to an event, I take immodium. That way I can enjoy myself and not worry about what my bowels are up to. I find it better to take this ahead of time than to wait for an issue. 

I have found a wonderful resource online from Austalian on this topic. I wish I had had this advice a year ago! Here is the link:

http://www.bladderbowel.gov.au/assets/doc/ImproveBowelAfterSurgery.pdf

The good news is that the cancer is gone, everything else is manageable. 

 

Mandy, it took 4-5 months for the to completely abate. It does get better and better.....don't lose hope.