mt1971

I assume by absesses you are refering to divertuculum. I had a bowel resection similar to the one your husband is refering to in Nov 04.

Some years before a divertulum had aparently burst, and then become very infected and joined my prostate and evetually perferated my bladder. During the 5 years that this had been happening I suffered from prostate pains and symptoms and later bladder infections, problems passing water and inflamation of the bowel. I was even disgnosed and treated for Crohnes Colitus. The extend of the inflamation and correct diagnosis only became apparent following surgery.

As far as pain relief is concerned, you can and should do something about it. You do get used to a certain level of pain but there are things you can do and drugs you can take to help. Pain is very real. My experience was that some nurses would behave as if you were creating a nussance id you were constantly saying, "I am in pain". One of my biggest frustrations was no one seemed to take me seriously and although my specialists were great my gastrioenterologist would not give me any pain relieve until I was diagnosed with the fistula (join between bowel and bladder - not nice!). Instead she told me to take paracetomal, which did not even go close. Palliative care is shockingly bad in this country (I cannot speak for other countries). The level of pain you feel is personal to you and very real. Of course there are things you can do to relax like breathing exercises, and visualisation techniques. But as you will know there is nothing worse than waking in the middle of the night in very severe pain, and feeling so alone, and not wanting to wake up your wife because she needs her sleep and you woke her up twice the night before!

Just before going into surgery your husband will probably be put on an epidural, which is essentually a drip on morphine fed directly into the spinal collumn which will cut off all feeling from the chest to the knees. This normally stays in place for two to three days, and following this he will then be given morhpine or other less strong opiates. The epidural is very effective (although very wierd). I have to be honest and say that the operation is very major and with involve a lot of discomfort following it as well as a faily long recuperative period.

The best pain relive except for morphine in my opinion is tramadol. It is one level above cocodomal in opiate strength which and I believe just one notch below morphine. It is a synthetically created drug so does not have the disadvantages that morphine has (you cannot get a physical addiction to it). It might make him a bit drowsy, so I used to take only one when I was working as it meant I could still drive and mostly concentrate at work, and it took the edge of the pain. All analgecs will slow the bowel to some degree and therefore give some constipation, but tramadol does this less than most (and certainly less that codiene). You can also take it with paracetomol to increase its strength (I only found this out when the nurses were giving it to me while in hospital). I used to take one tramadol (50mg) and 2 paracetomal every 4 - 6 hours during the day and then 2 tramadol and 2 paracetomal the minutes that I got home from work. 2 tramadol will send you away with the fairies, but should remove all pain (you will feel pain but not care). Whatever he does he should stay well clear from ibruprofen, as it irritates the large bowel and will make him feel far worse. If you do get a prescription for tramadol and are later admitted to hospital make sure that you tell the anaesthetist what dose you have been taking and for how long as you will have built up some resistance to morphine and so he or she will need to give more than normal to ensure that he does not wake up after surgery in pain.

I think that the most inportant thing is to produce a list of qustions for both the surgen and the anaesthetist and ensure that they answer each one to your and your husbands satisfaction. Then following the operation ensure that your husband takes it very slow for several months

Mischa