Today is the one month anniversary of my surgery. I had about 12 inches of ileum, secum, my IC valve and appendix removed. Surgery was done laproscopicly with a hand assist to remove the segment. I consider myself very lucky that my recovery has gone so well. On the 4th day post-op I was able to have liquids in the morning and by nightfall solids. The next day I was out of there. By day 13 I was back at work part time though admittedly I have a cushy desk job that I could do at a much slower pace than I normally would. I am completely off all Crohns meds and I am not taking anything anymore for pain. I had a little scare last week when I developed a severe pain by my anus, so bad that I could not sit. It turned out to be a peri-anal abscess that had to be drained. The lidocane and scraping of the abscess had to be by far the most painful experience of my life. It was just horrendous even with morphine. When it was over though, I could sit normally and am back on the road to recovery. Really the only lingering effects of the surgery I have is a little muscle discomfort from the ab muscle healing and having to take Imodium to support making solid stools. Other than that, I lost 20 Lbs that I needed to lose. My diet is slowly returning to normal where I had 3 bites of salad (first time in 4 months) and am waiting for an all clear colonoscopy in July to eat corn. I consider myself lucky and blessed things have turned out as they have
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1 Month later
- Thread starter DSPax530
- Start date
DustyKat
Super Moderator
So good to hear that all is going well for you DSPax530. 
I am sorry to hear about the perianal abscess though. I hope that is a one off!
Is there any talk of you going on maintenance meds?
Good luck for your continued recovery and I hope all goes well with the scope in July.
Dusty. xxx
I am sorry to hear about the perianal abscess though.
I hope that is a one off! Is there any talk of you going on maintenance meds?
Good luck for your continued recovery and I hope all goes well with the scope in July.
Dusty. xxx
My doctor and I actually discussed long term maintenance last Friday and at this point I am off all medications for Crohns indefinitely. I am sure I am missing something in the conversation because my wife who is an MD who talked in doctor language with the doc but it seemed to make sense. Basically 100% of Crohns patients will have some form of relapse at the anastamosis site at some point. It may be 1 year, it might be 30 but it will happen. The question is then, what is the probability it will happen in a shorter period rather than a longer period. Apparently there was a study done that showed based on certain risk factors and certain pathology results from a post surgical colonoscopy can give a reasonable risk assessment of how long this will be. You take that risk and compare it to the risks of the long term effects of the medications and you decide what to do. I still have not had the colonoscopy but assuming it goes well, I will be off meds until I need them again.