The time had come for me to have my ileostomy take down operation. I was beyond excited.. I had been a slave to the bag and a slave to the bathroom. I was desperate to have my life back to normal! I had to have a couple of pre-op appointments. I was referred to Dr. Duncan at Bethesda and Dr. Duncan, in turn, referred me to one of his colleagues at Fort. Belvoir. Having the surgery at Belvoir was ideal. The hospital was an hour closer to home and the facility was much nicer. I knew all of the nursing staff on the surgery recovery wing very well and I was comfortable there. I met with both teams to see which hospital could schedule me first.
Bethesda could get me scheduled in a week and Belvoir, a month. I chose Bethesda.
This post has lots of disgusting things in it so I will show you a couple of beautiful pictures that I took of the spring Cherry Blossoms in DC first.
We scheduled surgery for April 25th early in the morning. We left the house at 4:30 am. My wonderful friend (who my mother connected me to) Karen came along to be an extra set of hands for John before surgery. Upon arrival, they took me into a private room to change, gave me a gown and hospital pajama pants (why?) and had us walk through the entire hospital with the other pre-op patients to the pre-op area. They designated us our beds and told us to get comfortable. We tucked ourselves into our little corner and we waited.
We waited.
We waited for a long time. I hadn't had anything to eat (or, more importantly for a migraine sufferer, DRINK) so..... BAM Migraine. Capitol M.
Finally the anesthesiologist came along with Fentanyl (the drug they use to put patients under general in most cases) and he game me a healthy dose, hoping I could nap and that my headache would dissipate. He was wrong. He gave me more Fentanyl. Finally, Dr. Duncan came by and told me he was going to get prepped and I would be on the table shortly. I was glad, because I felt like my eyeballs were going to pop out of my head.
About a half an hour later, the anesthesiologist came over to tell me that Dr. Duncan has been called in to an emergency surgery and we had to wait until he was done. I begged for an injection of Imitrex.
By this time, it was around 10 or 11, Karen and John were starving and we were all getting anxious. Johnny was being absolutely perfect, because, well, he is absolutely perfect. Finally, someone came to wheel me into the OR. My headache had just gotten better. I think it was around 1 before I went under.
Lights, cold room, ACTION!
I don't remember waking up.... I do remember being terrified of what would happen next. I knew that I would have to have a bowel movement like a regular person. Dr O'boyle, my Vaginal/Rectal surgeon had said, "I honestly don't even know what to tell you about how that will feel." I was scared; Scared but BAG-LESS!
The wound was covered with a bandage and the nurse had drawn a circle with permanent marker around the blood stain. She was monitoring the bleeding. It was covered for about 12 hours and then I was able to take off the bandage. The next few photos are GRAPHIC.
The wound was packed with gauze, which I had to pull out. I was kind of horrified that I was supposed to do this. They wanted me to pull it out, take a shower and then have the nurse re-pack it.
If you asked me how to describe what it felt like to have a giant hole in your abdomen, I would tell you that it felt like I had a giant flipping hole in my abdomen. I was unable to use those muscles at all. I couldn't sit up, I couldn't really do much of anything for the first day or two.
Then the C-Diff hit me.
I would describe C-Diff as the worst possible thing that could ever happen to a patient after having an ostomy reversal surgery. Wiki defines it as: "a species of Gram positive spore-forming bacteria responsible for a type of widespread infectious diarrhea. While it can be a minor part of normal colonic flora, the bacterium is thought to cause disease when competing bacteria in the gut have been reduced by antibiotic treatment."
Basically, I had had so many treatments of antibiotics over the past few months that the healthy bacteria in my gut over populated itself to attack the antibodies in the medicine and made me very, VERY sick. The good thing was, my pipes were re-connected. The bad thing was, I was using them 15 to 20 times a day, for two weeks. I couldn't be more than thirty seconds away from a toilet. I was wearing disposable underwear all the time. I was unable to eat because I knew that ten minutes later it would come right back out. During one desperate moment I told my husband I would do anything to have my stoma back.
I started an antibiotic in the hospital, (Yes, more antibiotics) and the diarrhea did not improve. I returned to the hospital after a few days of non stop sickness to make sure that I wasn't dehydrated. They gave me some butt cream, a new antibiotic and sent me home. I disinfected the bathroom every time I went in, and washed my hands so frequently they were raw and bloody. I would have died before giving that infection to my husband or son. I drank as much Gatorade as I could and a few days later I felt a little bit better.
I had to change my bandage every day. It was amazing to see how fast the wound healed. The Dr. did "purse" stitches and closed the wound on the inside because it was a "dirty" wound. He said it would heal from the inside out and it did.
Here is a glimpse of the wound healing.
Bethesda could get me scheduled in a week and Belvoir, a month. I chose Bethesda.
This post has lots of disgusting things in it so I will show you a couple of beautiful pictures that I took of the spring Cherry Blossoms in DC first.
We scheduled surgery for April 25th early in the morning. We left the house at 4:30 am. My wonderful friend (who my mother connected me to) Karen came along to be an extra set of hands for John before surgery. Upon arrival, they took me into a private room to change, gave me a gown and hospital pajama pants (why?) and had us walk through the entire hospital with the other pre-op patients to the pre-op area. They designated us our beds and told us to get comfortable. We tucked ourselves into our little corner and we waited.
We waited.
We waited for a long time. I hadn't had anything to eat (or, more importantly for a migraine sufferer, DRINK) so..... BAM Migraine. Capitol M.
 |
| Karen trying to cheer me up |
About a half an hour later, the anesthesiologist came over to tell me that Dr. Duncan has been called in to an emergency surgery and we had to wait until he was done. I begged for an injection of Imitrex.
 |
| Disappointed that we had to wait longer |
Lights, cold room, ACTION!
I don't remember waking up.... I do remember being terrified of what would happen next. I knew that I would have to have a bowel movement like a regular person. Dr O'boyle, my Vaginal/Rectal surgeon had said, "I honestly don't even know what to tell you about how that will feel." I was scared; Scared but BAG-LESS!
The wound was covered with a bandage and the nurse had drawn a circle with permanent marker around the blood stain. She was monitoring the bleeding. It was covered for about 12 hours and then I was able to take off the bandage. The next few photos are GRAPHIC.
The wound was packed with gauze, which I had to pull out. I was kind of horrified that I was supposed to do this. They wanted me to pull it out, take a shower and then have the nurse re-pack it.
 |
| Before unpacking |
 |
| Pulling out the packing |
 |
| The cavity that was "Sylvia the stoma" |
Then the C-Diff hit me.
I would describe C-Diff as the worst possible thing that could ever happen to a patient after having an ostomy reversal surgery. Wiki defines it as: "a species of Gram positive spore-forming bacteria responsible for a type of widespread infectious diarrhea. While it can be a minor part of normal colonic flora, the bacterium is thought to cause disease when competing bacteria in the gut have been reduced by antibiotic treatment."
Basically, I had had so many treatments of antibiotics over the past few months that the healthy bacteria in my gut over populated itself to attack the antibodies in the medicine and made me very, VERY sick. The good thing was, my pipes were re-connected. The bad thing was, I was using them 15 to 20 times a day, for two weeks. I couldn't be more than thirty seconds away from a toilet. I was wearing disposable underwear all the time. I was unable to eat because I knew that ten minutes later it would come right back out. During one desperate moment I told my husband I would do anything to have my stoma back.
I started an antibiotic in the hospital, (Yes, more antibiotics) and the diarrhea did not improve. I returned to the hospital after a few days of non stop sickness to make sure that I wasn't dehydrated. They gave me some butt cream, a new antibiotic and sent me home. I disinfected the bathroom every time I went in, and washed my hands so frequently they were raw and bloody. I would have died before giving that infection to my husband or son. I drank as much Gatorade as I could and a few days later I felt a little bit better.
I had to change my bandage every day. It was amazing to see how fast the wound healed. The Dr. did "purse" stitches and closed the wound on the inside because it was a "dirty" wound. He said it would heal from the inside out and it did.
Here is a glimpse of the wound healing.
I put scar cream on the wound every day. It is slowly softening up and gradually getting lighter. The bathroom is a constant battle. I have so much scar tissue in my perineum and rectum that the muscles don't function properly anymore. I have control but it is very difficult for me to have bowel movements. Sometimes it takes 45 minutes. It is painful. It might always be painful. I am, however, grateful that I was able to come out of these operations alive to watch my son grow. Each day is battle, but each day is also a gift.
 |
| Here's the scar 4 months post-op |
To be continued...
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