Post-Surgery Complications - Need Advice on Healing and Care

I very recently went in for surgery to remove my colostomy, my rectal cancer tumor, my gallbladder, and also three hernias. The surgery didn't go as planned because the radiation removed some of the tumor but turned the rest hard as wood, and he couldn't safely remove it without damaging my rectum. Long story short, everything from my large intestine on down got removed. I woke with an ileostomy, and the surgeon repeatedly apologized that he couldn't put me back together. I was unaware they had stitched my butt together for three days while in the hospital.

They didn't offer me a wound nurse; I didn't even know that was a thing until a couple of days ago. The front side of me healed pretty quickly, stoma included, but my bottom, not so much. When I last saw him, I told him it was leaking way too much, but for some reason, it doesn't leak when standing up, so he didn't notice. Now I'm lying here in bed, turned a flexible flashlight into a mirror, and can see the outer layer of skin is open and not connected, and there are two holes that will spew drainage.

Not good. Can you get to the ER?

You should be seen sooner rather than later.

Off to the ER with you. Don't dilly dally.

They told me to wait until the 14th, even after I sent the pictures of the wound. I got that's normal.

Words of Encouragement from Ostomy Advocates I Hollister

Hmm. Did you get that in writing? From them, "It's normal"?

Geez... anyone smell infection? Abscess in the near future?

I really hope that's not the case for you.

Hang in there until you see them.

They lied. 😁 If everything goes right, a butt shouldn't leak if there's nowhere to leak from. 🤷‍♂️ Now, a lot of us have had complications that took additional steps to fix, so we know it's not right to leak.

Actually, I got it in a text message, and I was incorrect. They didn't say normal; they pretty much just pushed me off to my appointment date, saying to get a dressing on it like I haven't been.

Hope it isn't myself and so many factors to it opening up the low-grade but high-risk radiation I got because it was cheap, so the insurance would cover it. But with hope, lucky I was to have all the cancer removed. I can see the next little while being hell to make up for it. I've had nothing but problems since 2021, messed my leg up, took 6 weeks in a boot followed by 8 months with an ankle brace, got a $9/hr raise followed by cancer.

If your insurance covers it, go to the ER. Complications with a panproctocolectomy can take a long time to heal.

I think I narrowed it down to stitches dissolving before the wound healed because of the radiation treatments I was taking a month prior to surgery, and I let my anxiety run wild without even thinking of that possibility. Besides double lung pneumonia at 9 years old, I've never been hospitalized since, so the past two surgeries plus the cancer have taken a toll on me mentally...

From my own experience, if it's damaged tissue from radiation, you need to be seen because it's not going to heal well on its own.

Right, I go to see an oncologist tomorrow since the one I had retired during my radiation treatments, and they never introduced me to a new one. I'm going to have him/her call a wound care nurse over or at least contact one for me. I'm truly ignorant about all of this; two surgeries now, never mentioned WCOCN. I found out about them on Reddit.