ptzgrl

Hey all,

Just wanted to toss this out there, in case anyone else is presented with this issue after a colon resection. I posted a thread to see if anyone else knew anything about this, but had no responses, so I can assume no one else had to deal with a stricture. Since I had to, I thought maybe sharing could help a resectionee down the road.

Three months after having an emergency resection, I was given a colonoscopy to see how things were healing up. The colonoscopy showed that my colon was narrowing up at the site of the surgery, or anastomosis site. The docs told me it would eventually close up altogether, and they wanted to try a procedure called "dilatation". This procedure would be similar to a colonoscopy, but it would also send a balloon type device to the narrowing site, and would be inflated to open up the narrowing. The only negative to this procedure is that it is just a temporary fix. I was told it may last two years, or just two months. It was different for everyone.

The other option I had was surgery, again. And since I just had surgery, I was not looking forward to being laid up again at home. I did lot's of research, and it seemed like all the advice out there by other docs and online material, was to go in the direction of the least invasive procedure, until I had really healed from the first surgery. It was like I could buy myself some time with this procedure, to get myself into better shape physically, mentally and nutritionally, for surgery later on. I did not hesitate to make a decision since I was having issues with constipation again, and with diverticulosis we don't wanna mess around.

I know my surgeon wanted to take care of business his way, but he will get his chance eventually. If this device I have now works for at least six months, I will be happy. I can plan out my surgery, and be prepped, which means no colostomy bag!!! And if I'm real lucky, the few scattered diverticuli that I have left will hopefully be near enough to the site of surgery to be removed altogether.

It's only been two weeks since the device was placed, and things began to run smoothly immediately. I am on standby and will keep anyone posted if there is any interest.

I am not sure if I can post this information regarding a site called "the DAVE project". It has awesome videos on various procedures related to gastroenterology. This site is where I found out what my procedure was all about.

Best of luck to all my fellow resectionees!