Experience of bowel resection recovery

[Coffeesnob11]

On Sunday night I thought I was starting to suffer food poisoning after eating some chicken. By Monday I couldn't keep anything down and after a 12 hour plus wait for an ambulance ( I couldn't move due to the pain) an ambulance came and took me to hospital where they diagnosed me with a twisted bowel. Tuesday night they removed 80cm and I am now on a ward.
Has anyone gone through this? What was your recovery like? I have pain relief tubes directly into my stomach but am quite scared of how painful it will be when they remove them. How long until you could eat or drink? Any experience or tips welcome.
(Spot the person being kept awake by pain and snoring!)

I had a section of bowel removed to form a stoma for a urostomy. (They cut a chunk out and sew the cut ends back together for this) Maybe it depends on which part of the bowel was removed how soon you are allowed eat but I and another lady who'd had the same op the day previously were given food to eat as soon as we felt up to it, along with special high nutrition drinks.
Neither of us actually had much appetite for a couple of days and we were supposed only to have food with no roughage at all for 6 weeks - rice pud, boiled fish, certain peeled fruits etc.
I didn't have much pain at all. The worst bit was constipation from the anesthetic (and lack of fibre, I suspect!) Had to have an enema in the end - I think that was worse than childbirth!
Also, depending on which bit they have had to cut out, you may have to take vitamin supplements I think - evidently different sections of bowel absorb different type of nutrition. But I expect you'll be given lots of advice and handouts about diet.

Nb. My op was planned so it was keyhole surgery - if yours was done as an emergency you probably have a much bigger incision which will be more painful I should think and take longer to heal. However I don't see why the healing of the actual bowel and dietary advice should be much different. (I am not a medical person, BTW, so just my own experience here)

They tried keyhole but reverted to full incision. I have been given permission to have fluids this afternoon but I have an Ng tube so most of it comes straight out of that. I haven't eaten since Sunday but luckily don't have much of an appetite. Thank you for sharing your experience.

My son had an intussusception last year which is basically when one part of the intestines slides inside another and it also caused his bowel to become twisted.

His case was complicated partly due to the fact that part of his bowel had been cut off from the blood supply which caused septic shock and made him incredibly poorly.

He needed several surgeries and had a stoma for 9 months in the end. He didn't eat at all for the first 2 months but after that, was able to slowly start building food back up again.

After his stoma reversal surgery which was through his stoma site and not a fully open surgery like his previous ones and didn't include any complications such as septic shock, they had him eating again 2 days later but I think if he didn't have such a colourful history, they may have allowed it earlier.

It can take the bowel time to ''wake up'' after surgery because it doesn't like to be handled so I imagine they might allow something tomorrow but probably plain and soft.

Feel better soon xx

Thank you. I was pleased not to go down the stoma route but more happy to be alive. Thank you for sharing and I am glad he is better.
I know that no 2 journeys are the same but I try not to Google so it's helpful to hear from people with really experiences

I had a paralysed bowel after giving birth which ended up in my ascending colon being removed when I was five days postpartum - it was quite an eventful week! I was in a high dependency ward for 2 days and then a general surgical ward for another 5, and they allowed me to start eating soft foods on about day 5 of my stay. The medical team kept on top of my pain really well - I started off with a morphine syringe driver and moved on to IV paracetamol and Oramorph. They discharged me with more Oramorph but in the end just paracetamol and ibuprofen were enough to keep on top of my pain at home.

Recovery at home did take a long time for me, but I was recovering from childbirth, looking after a newborn and establishing breastfeeding so probably not getting the kind of rest they recommend after major surgery 😅 My surgical wound needed a lot of aftercare and the district nurses came over to change the dressings every day for several weeks. I was able to leave the house to walk around the garden within a week, though, and I felt back to normal after about three months. Three years on I still have numbness around the scar and my bowel movements are slightly looser and a bit more urgent than they used to be (sorry TMI!) but I've had no major lasting effects.

I found dietary advice after my surgery a bit lacking but there are plenty of resources about low fibre/post hemicolectomy diets on the internet. In my experience I was off my food for a week or so after discharge and then my appetite came roaring back (that may also have been the breastfeeding to be fair!). Hope some of that has been useful and you feel much better soon.

You have lost a large piece of bowel and what remains will have to learn to adjust. That may take a while and it all depends on which section they removed—try to find out specifically, and talk to a dietitian before you are discharged (if they still exist on the NHS, I went private in the end for a one off consultation).

If you have Instagram there is a lady on there called Zanna Van Dijk(?) who had an emergency bowel op abroad and documented the whole recovery process, think she may have done YouTube as well. Might be worth a watch

It depends why the bowel got twisted. My husband has had three bowel sections over the last couple of decades and three other ops to untwist his bowel without sections. Then a stoma operation and another operation to reposition the stoma, which resulted in a further emergency operation. They decided his bowel just doesn’t work properly. It’s very difficult to get going again after an operation. His life has been much easier since the stoma.
He’s often been in hospital up to ten weeks post surgery, but we’ve seen lots of other people get out much quicker than him. Here’s hoping you have a quick and easy recovery, and that this is a one off for you.

Wow sorry you had to go through all that together and thanks for sharing.
I was put on liquids (soup and tea) last night but my stomach didn't tolerate it so I am back on water only as apparently I have illeus where you bowel forgets how to work. I have been trying to look at low fibre diets. My mother is horrified as she's from the generation of women who only eat wholemeal or granary bread, brown pasta etc.
The frustrating thing is never seeing the same doctor twice, I have seen 5 sets of doctors so far and they are always in a rush so I don't get much chance to ask questions and they understandably just want to concentrate on today.
It feels very odd to have not eaten since Sunday and not be hungry!

I think may end up going private for the post surgery stuff but guess I won't find out about the dietician until I am almost leaving.
I think they said the cecum but I will double check, they said it looked like a pretzel and had flipped over to a different part of my stomach.

Sorry to hear that, that sounds really hard.
They said it was just bad luck and nothing I did caused it.
I am glad the stoma helped.
Thanks for sharing and the good wishes.

I just wanted to give my sympathy really. I had an emergency small bowel resection years ago to fix a perforation. The recovery was tough - i think i started eating and came off IV after 5 days. Then home 2 days after that. I think i was off work for 5 weeks. I was 25 at the time and I think that helped. Most women on the ward were 60+ and things were slower for them.

I would say be aware that the first time you eat a full meal it may be painful. Don't be afraid to ask for pain relief.

Also, do consider getting some counselling or psychological support. I think I had mild PTSD following what happened to me and your 12 hour wait for an ambulance sounds horrendous.

Wishing you all the best for your recovery!

I was supposed to have key hole removal of appendix but they perforated my bowels. I have had umbilical hernia removal with mesh ten years ago. The mesh had wrapped around the bowel so they had to cut a piece of the bowel away and reattach the ends. I was two days in itu and not allowed to eat anything. Morphine syringe driver and paracetamol drip plus some local anesthetics to tummy skin. And antibiotics. I was doing ok three days later but unfortunately I needed to have another operation for the other mistake they made but it wasn’t abdominal one. So I could eat after two days and it went fine but had to stop in preparation for second surgery. All in all I was in 11 days instead of one day if the key hole would have worked.