Proctectomy

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ejbetty

Hi everyone,

Has anyone had a proctectomy? ;I had one last June 2016 and I am having a terrible time healing. I had to be cauterized about 8-10 times and I am now filling up with fluid and it is causing so much pain. I had a recent aspiration and it was painful and did not take the pain away. I just don't know what else to do. Please let me know if anyone has had one and had any problems.

Thanks,

Betty

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bigal1579

I did not have a proctectomy. My procedure was a total colectomy, which is removal of my colon and rectum, so for the rectum part, I think it is essentially the same. My experience is that the anal wound took a long time to heal, probably on the order of 3-4 years. I never had aspiration or cauterization, but I did have a couple of procedures to make sure there was not an open passageway (basically inserting dye to see how far it went via a scan or xray). My doctor explained that the long healing time is due to granulation, which is basically making new skin from the base of the wound, and it kind of has to fill in a gap. If you think about a slice cut that has been stitched, the outer layers have been stitched tight and start to grow together, so there is no gap to fill in. Because of that, an external surgical site actually heals pretty quickly. In my case and probably yours, there is a gap where the skin needs to grow in from the base and fill in the gap. This granulated skin is very tender, so when the inside of your cheeks rub together, the new skin tends to re-open. That's not necessarily terrible, but it means it can take a very long time to heal, and during that process, it can ooze fluid or blood. For me it is also an area where sweat can collect, so it is never really inherently dry.

The answer for me was to pack it as tightly as possible with sterile gauze. If it is really bad and oozing, such packing, at least initially, is best done by the doctor. Of course most of the time you need to do it yourself, so do the best you can. If it is packed extremely tightly by the doctor, you might be able to leave it in for a day or two, maybe longer. When you do it, you'll want to change it when it becomes wet, and initially that will likely be several times a day. Take a 4x4 pad, tear off a strip, and roll it so that it is the diameter of a pencil or a little smaller. Grabbing the ends and thinking about the motion for flossing your teeth, run it in as far as you can between your cheeks, and then push it in from the middle even farther, getting it packed in as tightly as you can. As time goes by there will be less drainage and you will need to change less often and will be able to use less gauze. I am fully healed (my operation was 9 years ago), but I still use this method with a tiny bit of gauze and change it every morning. If I don't do that, I can still get a little tenderness after a day ot two.

It's really different than any other wound healing because it takes so long. Be patient. Try the gauze, and hang in there. The fact that it is not healed 8-9 months later is not surprising. At some point you'll feel like you turned the corner and it is really getting better. I'm sure it sounds painful to you, but I can even ride a bike now with no pain.

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OldCrohnie

Hello,

I also had my rectum removed last June and my stoma resited. Ended up with Sepsis was extremely ill. Just before Christmas 2016 I had terrible pains in my lower abdomen like a bad period pain. I also had a smelly discharge coming from where my bottom used to be. Went to the specialist who sent me for a CT scan. The scan showed I had a collection of fluid the size of a mango in my abdomen I was hospitalised for IV antibiotics and had a drain inserted. The drain stayed in for 5 weeks and was really uncomfortable. I had to have scans every two weeks to see if the infection was getting smaller.

Over the last two weeks it's getting bad again so I guess it didn't clear up properly. Here we go again

Hope you get well soon '

Past Member

I had a similar experience first pancreatic numbers up so I was treated for that for two weeks in the one hospital. Then a week later I went to another hospital. They let me wait too long in the ER b4 taking my temp. I ended up sepsis and they found my gallbladder was leaking into my belly. They put a drain in two weeks later I was released. Then I went to Sloan Manhattan my safe hospital 2 weeks in Sloan they removed the gallbladder. From the hospital on longoing island to sloan was one day. I was critically I'll and they saved me. Organ pain is awful n at times hard to find. You might want to check with your Dr.'said. Good luck.

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