Six Week Post Operative Appointment

Hard to believe six weeks have passed since the surgery and amazing to realise everything that happened in that time.

So we took ourselves off for the 10a.m. appointment with the surgeon who examined the wound and enquired how I was managing the stoma. Strange that having surgically removed the cancerous tumour and gone on to create the stoma he did not want to examine the latter. I had taken a clean stoma bag in anticipation of this.

I did question the timescale of the future surgery that would reverse the stoma and give me back the human sewage works that works for so many of us. His reply was that in about 3 months time he would see me again and then an endoscopy would determine that the lower bowel had healed without leaks and that the reversal could go ahead. So in fact this will be about 6+ months from the original surgery.
They tell you this time is to give things a chance to heal and naturally we think of the bowel re-section after the tumour removal. Wrong!
We were told a while back by a very shocked stoma nurse of many years experience that we should have been informed it`s the radio therapy damage to the bowel area that needs to heal.
 Perfect example is Jaq had the same surgery as me. Except she had no radio therapy and no stoma was needed as within 4 days her bowel was functioning normally.

 Now while mentioning Jaq I must tell you how she amazed me today. Sitting in the boat not allowed to do hardly anything I watched her get a bag of coal off the roof and bring it to the front deck. These bags weigh some 50pounds and she just scooped it up in her arms and stepping into the front deck put it gently down. In past weeks she said she huffed and puffed and dropped the bag to the floor so her fitness is improving along with my health.

Anyway back to the future timetable of my recovery, the table has been set and I will deal with each course as it is served.  In a matter of months after hopefully a less invasive surgery I will once again function normally and can easily deal with the stoma care during this time.
Catheter clinic Monday and the hope is it will be removed.