Go now and click on the colitis surgery articles and find the latest article where you will discover some details about what you will face in the first few days after colitis surgery.
To get the full story of proven knowledge about colitis surgery from someone who has experienced it several times, you must get the Answers by clicking on colitis surgery.
At least one thing is guaranteed, after colitis surgery you will experience some pain. This is a major operation that you will have been through and depending on your state of health pre operation, the first week after the procedure will be challenging both physically and mentally.
You will most likely have access to morphine in the days immediately after the operation with other drugs made available to you once the morphine is withdrawn but unfortunately you will still encounter some element of pain both when moving and lying stationary..
One of the first things the medical staff will want you to do is get out of bed, even just to sit up in the bedside chair for an hour. The prospect of moving can seen horrific as even undertaking a small movement can be very sore. Remember, susceptible areas to pain will include both the area around the surgical incision, including the surgical stitching or stapling and the internal surgery itself. The morphine will dampen a lot of it but you will undoubtedly suffer discomfort. You may find for a few days after the surgery a real rawness internally. As the small bowel had been touch, moved, inspected, cut and stitched this is really no surprise.
After a couple of days, you will be encouraged to try a little walking. This may appear easier said than done as not only do you have to contend with the pain and discomfort of moving, but also as you are tied to several leads you will have to push along a stand that your drips etc are attached to. At the start it may feel that you are learning to walk again.
Standing up with both hands holding onto the medication stand, it really is one foot slowly in front of the other. Don’t try and walk before you can run. In fact don’t try and walk to the end of the corridor if it appears too far. Walk perhaps for a couple of minutes one way then back again for the first few attempts.
The act of getting up and sitting and trying little walks is all part of your rehabilitation and pain management. Most hospitals will have a member of staff that is qualified in pain management. Ensure you get the chance to speak to them and discuss what you are experiencing. They will have experience of many patients who have undergone this type of surgery and will be able to advise you of an appropriate course of action.
Each day that passes, your body will become more supple, the lacerations from the surgery will start to ease and you will feel the pain being replaced by the return of your strength. What you regard as second nature will become major efforts post surgery, yet the convalescence process can be quickened by adopting the successful strategies of those who have been through the experience and know exactly how to reduce pain and get back on their feet quickly.
It is daunting enough to face the physical process of colitis surgery. But what about the first few days afterwards?
How will you feel? How do you cope without a large colon? How quick can you get up on your feet?
Go and click on the “colitis surgery” articles tab now and I will post knowledge about the immediate aftermath of colitis surgery soon.
Michael
You will have undoubtedly have been bombarded with facts and figures all about ulcerative colitis and no doubt a thought is lingering in your mind as to the question everyone would like answered. “How did this happen?” You were probably healthy before being given an ulcerative colitis diagnosis, leading a normal life. Now you have a disease which can have very serious consequences, so how on earth did that creep up on you?
Was is due to your lifestyle, was it caused by eating something over a period of time, was it due to emotional or mental pressure that sought an avenue for release, was it due to many of these factors, was it due to a Western lifestyle and diet whether measured as excessive or not, was it due to being in a country of the developing world?
The answer is a communal “we don’t know, but we have some ideas”. More resources than ever are being spent on research to try and find the elixir to breaking the stranglehold that the disease has on those diagnosed. Studies have found that 15% of people with inflammatory bowel disease have a relative also with Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis. So that equates to 85% that have no link to a relative. Comparisons have to be made with other diseases to see if this figure is around the “natural level of susceptibility” or not. It is suggested that some people are predisposed to cancer or heart trouble due to a relative suffering from it, so I would not put too much emphasis on this by taking the percentage out of context.
There has been recently more emphasis put on gene research and it has been found through several studies that of the 30,000 genes found in the human body some are possibly more likely to contribute to the onset of colitis. It has been found that an ulcerative colitis gene encodes a protein which is implicated in maintaining the barrier function of the large colon wall. Findings have suggested that an inherent defect in this wall may predispose to colitis. Furthermore, five genes which predispose to colitis are involved in aspects of regulation of the body’s immune system.
So where does that leave us? Well, apart from requiring a lot more research, it does contribute to a growing trend of research findings that gene make up is becoming a much more important factor in challenging understanding into the cause or causes of colitis. It may take many more years before there is enough quality evidence to suggest that one or several factors are the causes, then of course more years after that before the development of satisfactory medication is available to sufferers.
Until that day arrives, those with colitis have to accept that it has happened and use, in particular, the knowledge and experience of others to guide and help them through their daily experiences and ease their anxieties. It can make the difference in so many ways.
So why did it happen? As with something that is not yet medically proven, many see this as a great chance to dive in and offer “claims”, “cures” and other enticing silver bullets to sufferers. They can be very attractive especially when the symptoms or colitis are at their height.
There is no known medical cure for colitis because there is no proven medical reason why it happens. Yet that does not stop others proclaiming their “breakthrough”. For the most part, what are portrayed as “cures” can merely be seen as a method of reducing particular symptoms that have succeeded for the person making these claims.
The notion that you can be diagnosed with colitis due to stress just does not stack up. Medical research has found that there are many different types of animal models of colitis. You can stress these animals in various ways until they die of stress, and still they do not show any symptoms of colitis.
The key to understanding the role of stress is that we have to separate, in many respects, inflammation of the colon from bowel habits, because ulcerative colitis is a disease of inflammation. For instance, when people are stressed, they are prone to have more bowel movements. That’s normal and is proven medically. We have all recognised that it can be nothing out of the ordinary to get diarrhoea with upset stomachs before what can be a stressful event, such as public speaking. Stress affects our intestines. But it doesn’t cause inflammation. On the other hand, if you have a tendency toward diarrhoea because of the colitis, stress can make the diarrhoea worse, but it doesn’t make the inflammation worse.
This is the exact same thing with diet, too. You may eat something that your stomach and intestine find difficult to accommodate. You may even be allergic to it. This sets off a reaction and diarrhoea is the result. You know what? Cut out that food and your colitis is cured! If only it was that simple. Colitis symptoms may appear because you have provoked the inflammation rather than the diet creating the inflammation. What should be proclaimed is “cut out this food and your colitis symptoms caused by that food will disappear”. I hope you can see that there is a big difference here.
When it comes to diet, don’t just think of your colitis in isolation but your whole health in particular. If you have a diet heavy in fat, processed food, lacking fresh vegetables and fruit, high in sugar etc then you will not be as healthy as someone who has a balanced diet. Does unhealthy diet cause colitis? There is no medical proof to suggest as such but that does not mean you won’t have bowel trouble. A person who has been on an unhealthy diet for years, and with the onset of colitis, then changes to a healthy diet will be doing his overall health a power of good. If the result of a healthy diet is reduced symptoms then that is to be celebrated but don’t fall into the trap thinking that your colitis is cured. The inflammation on the colon is still there, with the ability to wake up and raise its ugly head at any time. It is essential that the colitis sufferer is aware of this and discovers how others manage their daily lives living with colitis to try and ensure that periods of remission are of good continuous health.
It is the nirvana that anyone that has been diagnosed with colitis seeks. Imagining the familiar pattern of relapses and remissions disappearing along with the pain and discomfort that the disease brings. The weight loss, the feeling of great tiredness, even exhaustion could all be a memory if only there appeared a vision offering the great hope of an ulcerative colitis cure.
To find out more go to The Colitis Experience Articles and read the rest of this article.
What do you think? Have you discovered something that really changed for the better your colitis symptoms? Can you describe it as a colitis “cure”?
I would love to read your comments.
Michael
There is a huge amount of information that is available for sufferers to condense about the subject of the most appropriate colitis diet and whether there exists special proven diets that have the potential to improve a suffers health to the point that the disease is cured. So much information, yet how much of it is relevant and required?
There is confusion between what you should eat whilst the symptoms are in remission mode and whether that should all change when a relapse occurs. For a sufferer, when a relapse hits the sole intention is to ensure that you do everything that you can to assist your passage through the relapse and not antagonise it in any way through diet and subsequently further discomfort and prolonged symptoms for yourself. It is for you to experiment here. It is important to try different foods and in differing quantities until you can create a diet that will suit you.
There is no set colitis diet that you must and must not follow. There are some diets that are proclaimed to bring mild symptoms under control within days. It is prudent to approach such claims with an open mind and some caution. You will soon find what will work best for you. It is prudent to seek out what foods create consequences for the bowel activity that could easily be avoided. In contrast, there are foods that are generally accepted to slow down bowel activity or at least not provoke it.
In the depths of a full blown relapse, eating is not really high up the agenda due to the overall feeling of tiredness and discomfort. There will be times where the last thing that you wish to do is eat. It is not that you are not hungry, but because by going to the toilet so much and it is painful to do so, eating would only create more stools to pass, so it would be yet more trips to the toilet and more discomfort to endure. Yet the body requires fuel to fight the relapse. It amazes people how fast someone’s weight can fall during a relapse. It does happen and therefore you must be aware of the fact and ensure you at least try and slow down the weight loss.
It is also important to ensure that the body takes on adequate amounts of liquid, particularly during a relapse. The passing of diarrhoea using up a lot of liquid and this has to be replaced. It is not uncommon for those in the midst of a relapse to have experience of some level of dehydration due to insufficient liquid intake. And water is the best for this. There are those who advocate other drinks as supplements etc, but in the end all you need is a regular intake of water.
There is no need to spend hours wading through countless information sources or being attracted by the shiny silver bullets of miracle diets that are being made available. The soundest piece of advice is listen to your own body and seek out the proven experience of others who have the knowledge of their own colitis diet and have used it to reduce their symptoms and ensure their successful coping with daily life with colitis and adapt it for your own circumstances.
It is the question that has to be addressed and answered for more people nowadays who have been diagnosed with colitis. You may have thought that colitis surgery was a last resort for someone whose symptoms are now out of control and can’t be stabilised with stronger medication. Yet that is not always the case.
Some patients have no choice with regards to surgery because their symptoms are so far advanced that they are in danger of experiencing perforation of the bowel and now medication can bring the symptoms under control. In addition to this group, there is another group of people with colitis that endure periods of relapses then recover to an extent but don’t achieve full health. There is always some degree of colitis symptoms that prevail. There are some who just persist with this and can manage their lives satisfactorily. Others feel that the pattern is set and will never be broken and are seeking to achieve a better quality of live if they undertook surgery to have the inflamed colon extracted. They have to understand and appreciate that with an ileostomy or j pouch, life does have to adapt but they are willing to take these challenges on to rid themselves of the discomfort and pain that colitis brings.
What has to be addressed is the risk in undergoing surgery. These operations are not simple. They are lengthy and as with any surgery there is risk. The risk of infection is always there. Plus the greatest unknown risk is how your body will react to the change that it has undergone. This is not so much a factor with an ileostomy than with a j pouch. For some, and thankfully it is a small number, their body never really accepts the creation and function of a pouch and their quality of life suffers to the point where they may face their days having to be planned around trips to the toilet. Minus the pain and discomfort, this is the same scenario as their former life affected with colitis. If that is the case, there is only one option and that is a further operation to replace the pouch with a permanent ileostomy.
For someone who has colitis and suffers the occasional relapse, though who enjoys periods when they return to full health, it is very unusual for them to consider surgery. If they can cope with relapses when they occur and recover sufficiently well to enjoy good health again then few doctors would ever recommend surgery. Who knows, the relapses may become fewer in number perhaps as a result of better understanding by the patient of how to give their body the best chance to reduce the instances of a relapse happening.
Here is another important point to note. There is a lot of misconception amongst the general public about colitis and surgery. It appears that people can think that as soon as you are diagnosed with colitis that it will only be a matter of time before you will be lying on the surgeon’s table about to be cut open. Nothing could be further from the truth. Only a small percentage of those diagnosed with colitis ever end up in the operating theatre. I have seen figures quoted as much as 40% of sufferers go on to have surgery. This is just not true and you should not worry about it. The actual figure is less than 10%.
Ultimately, only you can make the decision to proceed with the surgical process but it is vital that you discuss all the implications not only with you doctor but also the hospital consultant and the surgical team so you fully understand all the issues that require to be addressed before any action is actually taken. Remember, for the vast majority who do undergo surgery, they achieve their goal of a better quality of life, free of the pain and discomfort that colitis brings. It is essential that the sufferer is fully informed and has access to others who have experienced not only the prospect of surgery but who have ultimately undergone the process and brought some control back to their lives.
So what is it to be, traditional medication to treat colitis symptoms or the use of probiotics?
There is a much greater awareness of the use of probiotics for gut conditions. Yet colitis is no ordinary gut condition is it? It is not a little rumble of the tummy and solved with drinking a small pot of probiotics.
Can they really reduce, even eliminate the beast that is colitis when it awakens from its slumber and roars, creating havoc?
What do you think? Have you used probiotics when suffering from the symptoms of colitis? Did they make any difference?
I am very interested in what you have to say.
Michael
When diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, the sufferer will have so many questions that require answering as to how it will impact on their life, the symptoms, the daily living during periods of ill health and how to deal with them. But there is also the important requirement of knowing about, understanding and how to use the available ulcerative colitis treatment that can make a big difference.
In consultation with their doctor or hospital consultant, the sufferer will mostly likely be offered a course of anti inflammatory drugs to initially bring the inflammation of the large colon under control and then to continue the medication in order to try and maintain a period where the inflammation disappears and the function of the colon becomes settled. This settled period can last from weeks to years where the sufferer can expect to enjoy a quality of life similar to that before the diagnosis.
There will also be available to use of steroids to bring the inflammation under control. Administered in powerful dosages, the steroids are extra assistance to fight the disease and bring relief to the sufferer as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the symptoms don’t disappear overnight but through the effect of the steroids they are reduced gradually as the inflammation reduces. Depending on the strength of the attack, this can take from a week to several weeks. The course of steroids will still have to be taken once the worst of the symptoms are over as there requires to be a gradual reduction of the dosage to wean the patient off them.
Depending on the severity of the colitis attack, a sufferer may have to be admitted to hospital in order for the symptoms to be brought under control. There, further medication will be administered with the possibility of greater strength steroids being used. This is only undertaken where the treatment used up to that point has not had the desired affect and the sufferer is regressing to a level of even greater discomfort and pain.
Where colitis symptoms are unable to be brought under control, the only option is for surgery where the infected large bowel is removed and an ileostomy formed. This does not happen to the vast majority of colitis sufferers as conventional medication can and does control the outbreak of attacks.
When people encounter discomfort and pain in the abdominal area, there can be a tendency to ignore it or take “over the counter” medication in order to alleviate such symptoms as diarrhoea. They may try to control it with these mild medications when in fact they are fighting a losing battle. The discomfort and pain can increase to very high levels which can only be addressed with the appropriate diagnosis and prescribed medication. It is important for those with such symptoms, and others having just been diagnosed with colitis, to seek out the knowledge of others, those that have experienced all the symptoms, in order to make their daily experiences easier and ease their undoubted anxieties.