Stoma Revision Experience: Recovery and Pain Management

I had an end colostomy in March of last year. I was having relapses and prolapses, so my surgeon used the same hole to pull the intestine out and trimmed it to be more stable.
Has anyone had this done? If so, how long before I should void? Everyone is different, but what is the average time? I'm extremely scared that it will be as excruciatingly painful as when my bowels woke up from the original colostomy surgery.
Right now, I feel as if someone kicked me in my side really hard several times. The pain meds cut the edge but not the pain.

Hi Jazzy,

My apologies... my Oklahoman isn't as good as it should be... so I'm a bit confused with what you're asking. How long before you should void? Do you mean how long should it take for something you've eaten to transit all the way to your bag? I'm also not familiar with the term 'bowels waking up'. I just had a revision two weeks ago now, and I was on a normal diet from the start... so there were no issues with 'going', and there was no pain, except from the incision. If they just adjusted your stoma in relation to your abdominal wall, there shouldn't be any pain associated with the bowels. Sorry, I'm not getting what you're saying... I'll just say a revision shouldn't be painful to your bowels... and transit time shouldn't have changed from before, unless they fixed something else while in there, or created another problem. Your abdomen will be sore... but that's normal.

;O)

bob

I've had revision more than once. Bowel pain probably depends on if the revision comes with resection—where they actually remove part of the bowel and then you have internal sutures as well.

Like Bob, I haven't had a lot of bowel pain except when I've still had some active disease left in the intestine, but 2 of my revisions were also due to necrosis of the bowel so after removing those sections generally I felt much better even with the incisions.

As far as voiding, that will probably depend on what your diet looks like following and how soon you eat. Usually, though, doctors look for output fairly quickly afterward to make sure the bowels are functioning normally.