Bowels waking up after surgery

[Adigby]

Hello all, I'm new and am in a very frustrating situation.

I am a 21 yo female and was diagnosed in summer of 2012. I had a small bowel resection in April of 2013 and things had been fine since then.

Three weeks ago, Oct 14, I came to the ER for pain and vomiting and was admitted for a bowelss obstruction. I was on an Ng tube for 9 days before the doctors decided to have surgery on Oct 24.

It has now been almost 2 weeks since my surgery and my bowels still haven't woken up. And I have been in the hospital for 23 days now. I am getting to the point of extreme frustration. The doctors say the in,y thing I can do to help is walk, and I'm taking five walks a day. I am just so ready to go home.

Any advice ? Can anyone relate?

 

[tzvia]

That sucks! It took 9 days for my bowels to wake up. For most people it takes 3-4 days. Are you passing gas? What I did to pass gas was int he hosp was pile like 5 pillows on top of each other and lay on top of them belly down. This position with the butt in the air helps to get gas out (for me anyway). I would stay in the position for 5-10 min, then switch to a squat type position on the bed (using a pillow to support the inscision) You have to be very very careful of your incision in this position. Are you eating anything? If they aren't letting you eat, you should be getting nutrition through a pic line.

 

[If*]

Hi, super sorry for what you are experiencing. It feels like forever. Walking is one of the best things. Careful if you hear chewing gum, it can cause trapped wind/pain.
I know your abdomen must be tender, but is there anyway you can try laying on one side (5-10 minutes) then the other? Not flat. It can sometimes get the guts to move, then take your walk if you can.

Even once they wake up, keep tying to walk, even at home. It can help with some of the wind pain that can happen.
*Ask the nurse, Dr. if the above would be OK.

Get better soon.

 

[UnXmas]

When I had my first stoma surgery, I developed post-surgical ileus - paralysis of the digestive system as a result of surgery. I think it was about a week before my stoma started working, I was in hospital for about 10 days altogether. With the ileus, I felt fine the first couple of days, my stoma hadn't worked yet, but in two days that's not unusual. Then I started getting incredibly bad stomach pain and nausea. My surgeon was off sick, and the doctor standing in for him thought my bowel was just slow; he didn't think of ileus, because with ileus the patient usually vomits a lot and vomits bile, and I wasn't vomiting. (I think because I hardly ever vomit, I think I just lack the vomit reflux or something.) So the doctor gave me laxatives - this was the absolute worst thing he could have done! The pain was unbearable! And the laxatives did nothing to get things moving.

They quickly figured out what was going on though - it was actually a nurse who thought of it, after she saw how swollen my stomach was - and confirmed it with an x-ray. They put in an NG tube to drain the bile from stomach, and the relief from the pain was incredible - up until then all the bile in my stomach could move neither up nor down.

The ileus resolved itself over the next few days, which is normal I think, and finally I got some output through my stoma.

The advice I was given was that I could eat a little bit and drink, but this was not to get the bowel working - everything I consumed (which was hardly anything for obvious reasons) would just be flushed back up the NG tube. I had IV fluids, and TPN for nutrition, but only for a day. They wanted me walking a bit, but again, this wasn't to help get my digestive system going, just to aid my general recovery. The ileus resolves on its own, without the patient or doctor having to do anything.

But for some reason they wanted me chewing gum - they said that was the one thing that would help to get my system going without it actually having to deal with any food. Which seems to contradict what they said the rest of the time, when ileus was something you just have to go through until it sorts itself.

I'm not sure whether what applies to ileus applies to other situations in which the bowel doesn't "wake up" after surgery. Have your doctors mentioned it to you or giving what you are experiencing a specific diagnosis? Do you have a lot of stomach pain or are you vomiting?

 

[DJW]

Hi and welcome.

I can relate. One surgery I had took almost 2 weeks for my bowels to wake up. So frustrating.

Sending you my support.

 

[movielover40]

I think a lot of the pain medicine they give you post surgery slows it down also.

 

[Grumbletum]

Wow, I am surprised they would let you go on like that for two weeks. I'd passed gas but no bowel movements 5 days after my resection so they gave me Movicol. I had a bowel movement about 2 mins after the first dose and didn't need any more after that. Made me wonder if there was a psychological aspect to me not being able to go.

 

[Muppetgirl]

I can relate, though 2 weeks is an awful long time. Is it that you can't pass a BM or is it completely asleep? Are you in pain? I had ileus without vomiting also. The pain was extreme though, couldn't find any position that was comfortable to rest let alone sleep. Are you getting enough fluids? I have to say the bowels seem to have a mind of their own on this. It is horrible. Even when it woke up again it was slow and sluggish and I was in tears of frustration. It will improve though. Hang in there. Sending you good luck.

 

[UnXmas]

I think a lot of the pain medicine they give you post surgery slows it down also.

My surgeon forbid me to have opiates after some of my surgeries because they can slow the bowel - the major ones, minor bowel surgeries he didn't mind. The pain was bad, but my most recent major surgery, with a different surgeon, I had morphine, codeine and Oxycodone and the withdrawal from the Oxy was worse than the pain I'd had from the surgeries with no opiates. But despite having all those opiates my bowel started working in a couple of days that time. When I had the ileus, I'd had no opiates at all. :confused2:

I agree with the other posts that two weeks does seem a very long time.