Possible reversal and hernia fix.

     This is a letter sent to my Doctor from my Surgeon, has anybody been through the same procedure?. I wonder what you feel my chances of sucess are?.

     " Further to my last letter on Mr Hughes, his contrast imaging does confirm he has a very short rectal stump, probably only 8cm in length. He does appear to have a reasonable amount of left colon which, if fully mobilised would reach the lower rectum. his abdominal wall is, as expected, very distorted and deficient."

     "I will be meeting with Mr Hughes to discuss these issues with him. I think it is very difficult to be satisfied that he would be left with anything other than a very weakened and distorted abdominal wall, whatever we did, though it might be possible to undertake reversal of his stoma. It is by no means certain that he would have adequate functional outcome with such a short rectal stump, but obviously these are issues that we will have to discuss"

     "With kind regards...etc..etc"

Hi Rizzo. I am just recovering from a colon resection, but developed sepsis, almost died, went in for second surgery and came out with ileostomy. I totally understand your questioning and concern of what the doctor is saying to your surgeon. I have been told I can have a reversal in couple of months, but I am very apprehensive as like your doctor is saying, there is no guarantee it will be sucessful. I would talk further to both your doctor and surgeon and if you can live with your current situation a while longer, take more time to research your own condition. Don't know if that helps, but I wish you the best.

Thank you Vicki, It's the reversal I'm most concerned about...I can live with the hernias, the're not painful at all, just a little unsightly.

I too had a reversal at only 11. I'm now 37. ( ileostomy) I won't lie, it was tuff. But sadly mine didn't work. The surgery itself was fine, it seemed that the blood wouldn't flow back to the heart, so they had too undo me. Spent 4 days in intensive care. But I was offed another go at 18 but I sad no. I was happy to have the bag back.. It tends to work if your generally heathy but for me I had too many other medical issues, Good luck with it all,

Yes, I went through all this too and at the end of 5 years I was practically begging for the colostomy back.  One thing: you need to be assured your anal sphincter is going to be strong enough to keep you from being incontinent.  You may have to go through a not-so-nice test called anal manometry to determine this.  After all the testing, alternative medicine, etc, etc, my colon started backing up at the anastomosis and the colostomy was inevitable - unfortunately it took 5 years of suffering to get to that point  

Hi Pinky,
Thanks for the advice, I still pass mucus from the back passage and sometimes it can become excessive, but so far I've managed to keep it in, no accidents. So hopefully a weak sphincter wont be a problem.