Hello everyone. I've been reading for days on this forum and did not see my situation so I'm going to post a question, but first, a little background. I had a vaginal hysterectomy 1/9/08; at follow-up visit gyne was pretty sure I had a colorectal-vaginal fistula. I went for a CT scan to confirm it, but it also showed a pelvic abscess. (I had been in pain constantly during the 3 weeks post-op and the gyne kept telling me it was from positioning on the OR table - WRONG!) So, I was admitted to the hospital on 2/1/08 to have a drain placed and to receive IV antibiotics. Next day, the drain was put in, in a very uncomfortable manner, through my buttock. Yes, it was incredibly painful, and the massive doses of morphine made me very sick. After a few days I was to go home, drain still in, but I fussed enough about it that we repeated the CT scan to see if abscess had drained. This scan showed there was still something there but also my right ureter was compressed. Surgeon removed the drain and scheduled surgery to clear out the remaining abscess, possibly place a new drain through the abdomen, and insert a stent that runs from my kidney to my bladder. During that surgery, a good look around showed a lot of diverticulitis on (lucky me!) my good bit of extra colon. Another surgery was scheduled to create a temporary colostomy which would allow the diseased section of colon to settle down. After almost 2 weeks I finally got to go home, only to return 4 days later for another week's stay with a UTI that was staph from the stent. Not a bad stay overall, and it allowed me a chance to further adjust to the colostomy. I did three months with the bags and I can honestly say it's not that bad to deal with, although the initial shock of learning I had to have it was huge. I think knowing it was temporary had an influence on my attitude.

Fast forward 3 months, and I had my latest surgery 5/15/08. Surgery took 4 hours and consisted of repairing the fistula, resection to remove the bad part of my colon, and takedown of the temporay colostomy. The stent remains and was used as a marker during surgery; it will come out in August and should be permanently out. I did not get my NG tube out until about 5 days post-op, along with removal of the foley and PCA. Next day I had diarrhea all day but once I started soft foods I had no bm's at all. I went home on the 8th day and did not have any bm's until several days after that. I attributed it to the percocet I was taking so stopped that and switched to good old ibuprophen. I was told to avoid certain foods but gradually work new foods back in. Initially my trips to the bathroom were every 30 minutes at best if not sooner, and I had this horrible need to push. I was positive I had something "stuck" that needed to come out so was taking stool softeners and laxatives. At follow-up with the surgeon, I had a rectal exam and there was no obstruction, so he suggested Metamucil twice a day. He says there may be an injury to the rectum where the stapler passed through that causes the insane urge to push and it will go away. But I also am concerned that I cannot produce much stool when I go, although adding up all of the times I need to go in one day, it's probably my normal amount. He did mention that I may have a narrowing of the colon that would need to be corrected with a scope but to keep that just in the back of my mind. I go back again this Friday to report if things are better and decide if I need this scope or not.

I'm sorry to make this so long. To get to my actual question, are these very small bm's normal? How worried should I be about this possible narrowing of the colon? My surgeon is fantastic and he believes in giving me all the possible scenarios so that he's not springing anything on me. He said to just keep this in mind, as he told me to do when he mentioned there was a very small chance of the resection leaking, and THAT didn't happen, so does that mean the possible narrowing is also a very small chance? I would appreciate hearing from anyone who had any similar experience. Thanks for taking the time to read my long-winded post!:dizzy:

Hi zima,
I have been reading here for years and I can tell you I have not read of a similar experience that you have had-- most are very straight forward with a few complications but yours is a terrible story.

I have had 2 1/2 feet of my colon removed because of chronic diverticular bleeding on 3/4/2002 and of course your BMs do change. But, I have not had any leakage. But, taking a water soluble fiber like Metamucil will bulk up your stool since it absorbs water and expand your colon as well as making you regular w/o alot of straining. I take the Equate brand from Wal Mart twice daily -- the Orange flavored sugarfree type.
To have normal BMs you need a combination of both soluble and insoluble fibers.

I wish you well ---Harry

Harry, thank you for your reply. I wasn't quite getting why he wanted me to use the Metamucil - thought it was just a gentler way to go instead of Miralax or whatever. You have helped me to understand better the reasons behind my prescribed treatment. Things have begun to improve, although I feel a little bit constipated again today. It's better than running to the bathroom 10 times a day though and I do feel like I'm getting back to normal finally. I don't think I'm going to be needing the scope my surgeon had mentioned; as you said, the Metamucil bulks up stool and it must be expanding my colon because it was more normal looking this morning. I never in my life thought I could become so obsessed with looking at my poop on a daily (sometimes hourly!) basis. ;)

2008 hasn't been my best year but I feel like I'm finally on the right path back to a normal life. Thanks again for the info.

zima,

When you have rectal bleeding, you may forever look at your stool to make sure there is no blood present and anything else that may be a little unusual.

FYI --Miralax is an osmotic type of laxative that promotes secretion of water to the colon to initiate a BM -- other osmotic type laxatives are Milk of Magnesia, Magnesia Citrate and Epson salts.

These are different than the stimulating type laxtives like Ducolax,castor oil, cascara and Senokot (senna) . These irritate the intestinal wall -- stimulating contractions (peristalsis) for BMs.

Going for BMs so many times daily may cause you to not absorb nutrients for good health-- So slowing down your digestive tract is better.

God Bless ---Harry

I saw the doc again today, and he feels I am doing just fine and on target. I have seen improvement, it's just that I was likely expecting too much too soon. I was told to increase the amount of Metamucil daily, and make sure I get lots of water and fresh fruits and veggies, which I generally eat plenty of anyway. I'm planning on being back at work by June 30th so I plan on following orders and making sure I am ready to go back when the time comes. I will be 6 weeks post-op by then, so I hope I'm not rushing things, but I do tend to heal quickly and I am getting bored already being at home.

I hope that you can get this post today. I had a resection and adhesion removal 9 days ago and mostly all I have is gas and small bm's. I had it in the sigmoid.

Hi kitnkate

When do you follow up with your doctor? If you don't see improvement by then you will want to let him/her know you are having difficulties.

I thought I was healing properly and going through all of the normal stages, until my most recent followup on Tuesday. At nearly 6 weeks post-op I was told I should be having normal bm's without any difficulty. Instead, I am having mostly small ones and going 6-8 times a day. I do occasionally have a fairly normal looking bm, but that wasn't good enough progress for my doctor. He has scheduled me for a short scope (I'm not quite sure what that means other than it's a scope going in through my rectum and not going too far up into my colon) on August 5th. I also have spasms in the rectum which he said are the result of improper healing and as the stool passes through and into the rectum it reacts with the spasm. It hurts a lot even when the amount coming out is very small. A friend of mine who has IBS and similar spasms describes it as "it's like my rectum got the dry heaves!"

I am telling you all this because I hope you will be on the lookout for any other problems you may have and tell your doctor right away. I was just going along happy and assuming it was okay to not be totally normal yet because many other people told me it could take much longer to be back to normal or I might never get back to how I was before. I was sort of accepting this as the new "normal" for me but now I know better.

I did a follow up with my dr. Due to the adhesion removal in the small bowel and the sigmoid resection it is slower to return to normal. I am only 11 days out right now. Today I had more bm's but I guess that from what I read about on the sigmoid resections they are harder to have stool because of what you described with the urge to go and then just nothing or swelling or something. If you have the scope done its not bad because they can get to it without having to do general surgery to open you up. Thanks for the post and the information!

Thanks for the info. My dr said that I would get this problem because of the swelling that is still there only 11 days out. I hope hope hope it gets easier. I have that spasm feeling in the rectum like you do. Where was your resection?