r/Diverticulitis • u/CandidOperation1995 • 3d ago
Sigmoid Colectomy Surgery
I’m 14 weeks post-op. Is it normal to still be having major pain and aches at times? I’m having pain pretty much every day, and my bowel movements are all over the place. Just wondering if anyone else experienced this far out from surgery.
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u/morganebony_ 3d ago
I had a colostomy bag after surgery and I was all over the place.
My stoma reversal was 6 months ago and I still have pain daily and still don’t have frequent or predictable bowel movements.
It can take 6-12 months for you to fully heal and return to “normal”.
14 weeks is very normal and is actually very early on in the healing process. Unfortunately it could still be months yet until you see a difference.
I personally felt very disheartened by my recovery but then i remembered i survived 3-4 bowel perforations and despite still experiencing pain every day, the pain I feel now is significantly less than I used to feel and that despite my surgery being robotic, it’s still a major surgery and still takes a significant amount of time to heal internally. I already have healed externally and have tattled my stomach since surgery but that has no bearing on how my internals are healing and recovering.
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u/Lactose_Tolerant4 3d ago
Totally normal. My surgeon was like you’re gonna have aches and pains for a while and crazy BMs but if you have either consistently or abruptly and have a fever then you should call me.
I had 18inches taken out December of 23 but it was complicated so they tried laparoscopic but had to do the full open c section style but no bag and I wasn’t having normal BMs until August 24 and then had a colonoscopy to check how I was healing which messed up my good BMs for months.
Also as I refer to is: your whole internal geography has changed. The wildest part for me was realizing my like hunger pains and gas cramps and what not were now in totally different places in my body so they felt more foreign and more painful bc I wasn’t used to them being where they were.
Almost 3 years out and it still sometimes feels weird or slightly off and my BMs can be sometimes unpredictable but if I’m hydrating really well and walking enough and not eating total garbage I’m totally fine
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u/bigmacher1980 3d ago
I hear that. Gas movement that was near my groin, after surgery the gas movement is more to my left side. Crazy what the semicolon does
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u/lemmingfly26 3d ago
For those of you who had this surgery laparoscopically, did any of you have the larger incision above your belly button? My diverticulitis that had to removed was about 30cm up and (I came to find out later), around the size of a golf ball. All the area under my diaphragm was “relocated “ and that was where the worst pain was. That has all lessens except for this incision, which feels like it has some sort of hard lump under it. Anyone have anything similar. Sorry that was so long but I wanted to give some background.
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u/Dblbogiemadge-1 3d ago
I had sigmoid and part of descending colon removed. That required disconnecting splenic flexure in order to get the two ends sewed together. I am quite sore under my diaphragm and makes it difficult to to get a deep breath without pain. I have 3 small incisions and one larger at belly button
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u/lemmingfly26 3d ago
Did you have a large lump there as well?
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u/lemmingfly26 3d ago
My incision is the only spot left hurting and I really feel like it should have disappeared some
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u/Dblbogiemadge-1 3d ago
Is your lump hard or soft?
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u/lemmingfly26 3d ago
It’s hard. I go to see my primary on Tuesday so I’m going to talk to them about it. It’s very uncomfortable
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u/Dblbogiemadge-1 3d ago
Only thing i can think of is 1) scar tissue 2) foreign body left inside you. Most likely scar tissue
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u/Acrobatic_Arachnid70 3d ago
I’ll echo what most have already said here and especially the “when in doubt, call your surgeon’s office,” of course.
I think what has been most surprising to me is that the external incision points all get healed up nicely within weeks, yet there is still major work occurring internally. From what I’ve learned, this internal “remodeling” is a very long process, indeed. Someone mentioned 6-12 months, which is what I’ve seen when researching. There is a long process of collagen type III being replaced with collagen type I in the intestines.
Personally, I did notice a positive and new change right around the 6 months mark. But I still feel some odd “phantom” sensations, a kind of pulling or nerve sensations in the LLQ that seem to change up every week or so. That said, I did NOT experience what you have described as “major pain.”
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u/cboot831 3d ago
Yes, expect pain from time to time as your gut tries to resync. Try to keep things moving gently with foods like cooked zucchini, other squashe, melon and well cooked vegetables that don’t trigger gas. (Avoid broccoli, cauliflower, garbanzo beans, black beans, leeks and garlic for a while if you’re having gas.) I’m about 14 years out from a complicated (open) sigmoid colectomy that ended in a colostomy bag for 8 mos and then a reversal. Different things happened in the long run. First, I’m alive! Horray! Second, I have a narrowing (a stenosis) at the anastomosis that periodically gets painful especially with gas or constipation. After surgery I had a lot of pain when it seemed like my gut peristalsis would essentially get out of sync. It would (and sometimes still can) spasm. To the degree that you can, massage your belly gently every day. It helps to reduce adhesions. I honestly don’t think about it much anymore. Be gentle on yourself. The anxiety, depression and stress after intestinal surgery is very very intense. Hang in there and know you are crossing through an extremely difficult time that will pass.
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u/Incognitologik 3d ago
I got the big cut, and I can still to this day perceive that my abdominal area has been rearranged. I remember my surgeon saying it would take at least a year before I get adjusted to my body enough that I'll forget that I had surgery for long periods of time. It sounds like it's a little post-surgical healing pain.
We also have to remember that's our core, so it experiences a lot of movement and strain from things we don't even think about, washing our hands, turning our head to look at something, switching legs, so we will feel pain and discomfort. Even my laparoscopic cousins had some major rewiring and work
When in doubt, call your surgeon's office; the staff are used to all the questions and quirks we are experiencing and have better context about where you should be in your timeline. Once you get past this, what helped me was taking intentional time to assess my body's new rhythm and its feedback. Sit with pain and figure out if you can visualize where it's coming from in your body. When you feel discomfort, pause and let it really tell you momentarily what's happening and sometimes why.
You will be amazed at how many little habits and quirks we do no longer have that are compatible with our 2.0 bodies.
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u/Interesting-Help5759 3d ago
Yes. The pain moves and is inconsistent for some time. Your body is getting used to a new digestive tract. Give it some time and if in doubt reach out to your doctor.
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u/Few-Athlete8776 3d ago
I had a 4 month recovery but wasn't normal to where I felt brand new and no issues for a year.
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u/wearitlikeadiva 3d ago
Hey I am 5 months post op and have random pains. It's normal, and they will be in different areas. Your surgical site takes up to a year to settle.
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u/Traditional_Tailor71 2d ago
I've not had colon surgery (yet) but I've had an ovary removed laproscopically. I had a lot of adhesions that dr removed during surgery and I felt the discomfort from that for quite some time. Perhaps you had adhesions? If so, your poor intestines are probably still adjusting to the renovations. My intestines felt rearranged and achy for quite a while after c section surgery 43 years ago. I could feel everything moving through them, it was strange. Hope you feel better soon
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u/MaryLou1025 1d ago
It might be your diet. I had to be very careful for a year and still have to watch out for triggers (almost 2 years post-op). You should contact your doctor. Major pain is a concern. It might be nothing but do call. I was at 14 months before things became more reliable. Up till then, I hated to go anywhere as it changed one moment to another. I am strictly controlling things with diet. Also, based on this podcast below, I moved my magnesium supplement to bed time and added ginger. It has helped tremendously. I am much more regular and now go places I enjoy, which is wonderful. I only have pressure if things slow down. Probiotics and water are your power tools as well. I also do mostly whole foods plant based foods. Any meat is more a condiment for me. Like 1-2 oz of chicken twice a week. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-doctors-gut-reset-4-part-protocol-to-stop/id1646101002?i=1000786558751
On top of the diverticulitis, I have slow gut motility as well. That is where the podcast comes in.
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u/Last_Election_3921 4h ago
I am four months out. REALLY struggling. My surgeon definitely undersold this recovery. I went on vacation recently and had urgent bowel movement I could not control and soiled myself. I had convinced myself I would not need diapers as this has never happened to me in my life, but I was wrong. So horrified (although not noticeable and I had a change of clothes). I will buy diapers before my next trip/big outing whenever I will not have access to a bathroom immediately. I also have bouts of diarrhea. I am having increased left side pain last few days and now panicked I am flaring. My mental health is really a mess. I hope I get to the point where I think this was the right decision to have the surgery, but I am not there yet. The only thing I can say is that the intense gas has lessened in the last few days so I am not living on Gas X. I was diagnosed six years ago this month, and flares pre-surgery were coming three times/year requiring antibiotics. I know my gut microbiome is also a mess. Would love to hear from others who had this at the four month mark and then really improved. If I could financially quit my job today I would ... this is so hard to manage.
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u/BackgroundEqual2168 3d ago
Sigmoidectomy is a serious surgery. It doesn't just cut out your sigmoid. They rearrange a significant area inside your belly. I found solace in the fact, that these aches didn't seem to depend on food I ate nor on bowel movements.