Bladder pain after resection

[Tyler9]

Hi everyone, I had my first bowel resection surgery done last tuesday, and have a temporary ileostomy. I just got sent home from hospital yesterday and have a couple questions.

I have a lot of swelling still in my abdomen around the incision (open surgery) and the stoma area. Obviously this is normal, im wondering how long it will last and when I might start getting some relief.

On top of this, my main question has to do with bladder pain. I was tested for a UTI in hospital which didnt show anything, however whenever I finish urinating I feel a lot of pressure/cramps in my bladder that are pretty painful and worrying. They usually do not last and go away once I finish, however sometimes it lasts for several minutes after. It feels like a pressure/pain sort of thing right in the pubic area. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar? Im wondering if it can be caused by the swelling in my abdomen just above? Maybe pushing on nerves or something. Or I guess it could have something to do with the catheter I had for a few days.

Just looking for some insight with people who have more experience with this than I do.

Thanks

 

[24601]

Hi Tyler,

I've had four open surgeries and have had much more swelling with some surgeries than others. It does go away but as to timescale I think each occasion was different - and of course as with everything we're all different too. For me it's probably ranged from a couple of weeks up to anything like four or even 8 weeks later! The longest was for my most major surgery when there had been a lot more work done so I'd think that would be more extreme. Of course the girl in the bed next to me was up and walking around the day after our surgeries showing her completely unswollen abdomen - we're all different!

As to the bladder pain, I would keep mentioning it to your doctor or IBD nurse or whoever you're in contact with post-op but in my opinion it could be any of the things that you suggest. Hopefully it will just settle but better to be sure they're keeping an eye on any possible causes.

Sorry I haven't been more helpful but I just wanted to say good luck with your recovery. Hope it all goes smoothly!

 

[UnXmas]

I think you should ask a doctor about the bladder pain. I can tell you my experiences with bladder pain and surgery, but yours may be something different.

I've had many surgeries, and sometimes I've not been able to pee for over a day after surgery, then when I can go, it hurts, especially as I finish peeing. When I've had a catheter, I obviously didn't have the inability to pee, but when the catheter was out I had the same pains.

I'm not sure why. I have bladder problems anyway, so I thought it may have been related to that. When I've gone a day without peeing, the nurses do an ultrasound of my bladder, but other than being stunned by how full it was, they didn't find anything wrong.

The pain is worst if my bladder is very full - the worst was when I was having extra fluids with TPN.

But apart from maybe emptying your bladder regularly to see if avoiding it getting too full reduces the pain, I'm not sure what to suggest. My bladder would be back to normal (or what's normal for me anyway) after a week or two, but you should ask a doctor so they can check there's nothing wrong.

I don't get much swelling from surgeries, and I had the pains even when I've not had a catheter, so for me it's not related to swelling or catheters.