Greetings all!
I used to have a rather active account on this website, but over the years I stopped coming as often because my real life got rather busy. In any event, it's awesome to be back and I look forward to reconnecting with some old and hopefully new friends here as well!
To make a long story short, my beautiful and very much loved husband, Tyler, has had his ileostomy since he was about 25 years old. He is now nearly 31 and is still doing great all things considered. However, just recently he started having sigmoidoscopes (he still has his rectal stump, but none of his large intestine) in order to screen for cancer as a precaution. The doctors have found that he does have inflammation in his rectal stump, and our specialist gave surgery to remove the stump as one of our options.
Tyler and I are both very worried though because we know that there's a chance he may be rendered impotent by the procedure. Naturally, if he were diagnosed with cancer, there would be no question at all! But for the time being, no cancerous polyps were found. Still, our specialist was honest enough to admit that there's always a chance cancer can be missed when they do biopsies of the rectal stump, which was a very frightening thing to consider.
So now, Tyler is left considering whether or not rectal stump removal might be worth it.
Can anyone who has had their rectum removed please let me know what the after-effects were like? I really need to hear from you brave people now!
Thank you.

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40,155 members
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Ostomy surgery is stressful both for the patient and the caregiver, and creates a major life change for both people in a relationship.
Learn how to care for your loved one, while still taking care of yourself.
Learn how to care for your loved one, while still taking care of yourself.