Surgery complications

[jkcandy]

surgery complications

My adult son had his ileostomy surgery July 1 and had to have another one 1 week later. He had several abscesses in his stomach and they had to be drained. He had an infection and his white count wouldn't come down and he had to have feeding tube in neck. He was very sick and went home with a pic line and had vancomycin for two weeks. Later ended up in hospital with sepsis. His stoma on one side has pus leak out of it. He is now on another antibiotic. He is having trouble with leakage because it is hard around stoma due to infection. Before surgery they though he had UC but after surgery it was determined he had chron's. He was told that the mesentery was very thick and they had a hard time pulling the intestines thru. They said they might have to do another surgery but would like to wait as long as possible for him to build up strength and for inflammation to clear. Has anyone else have this much trouble with surgery and any suggestions as to what to ask surgeon.

 

[muppet]

I have no advice for you but I read your post and I just want to say that I wish you both the very best of luck and I feel for you on this. My thoughts are with you and I have no doubt somebody on this forum will have experience to lend to you. What a blessing you are to your son, willing and clever enough to get out here and do your own research and become informed before you speak to the docs. The simple fact that you're doing this already improves your son's odds for a good outcome.

 

[glum chump]

Hi jkcandy

I'm so sorry that your son has had to deal with so much. The initial ileostomy surgery and waking up to the ileostomy can be enough of an adjustment without all the other complications.

I had my surgery mid-May and was in hospital for six weeks because of ongoing infections. On the second day after surgery, I had an infection in my lungs, and then started throwing up constantly and had an NG tube in for seven days. They wouldn't let me eat or drink anything---it was 15 days after surgery before they allowed me to start on a clear fluid and then soft food diet. But in between then, they also found that I had almost 2 litres of fluid built up in my stomach. Ideally, my surgeon would have liked to surgically drain the fluid, but like your son, I was too weak for them to want to risk it. They put a perc drain in, but the radiologist stuck it into my bowels rather than my stomach which perforated my bowels. And yes, the surgical fluid became infected, so they still needed to figure out how to drain the infected fluid out of my body. I was "lucky" in that the fluid started draining out of where the surgical incisions were made, and here I am, over three months later, still having to have daily dressing change because little bits of the fluid continue to drain out. Thankfully, there's very little of the fluid left in my body. I was on antibiotics until 2 weeks ago.

I was physically fairly miserable, and then, just under the three month mark, things began to really shift for me. Even though my wounds are still open, I have more energy, I'm eating, the infection has resolved itself and life is good.

I do credit a lot of my healing to the protein drinks I started on in early July. I bought it from the health food store, and it's basically the high protein/calorie drinks that bodybuilders tend to use. It not only allowed me to put on some weight, but I really needed the protein to heal tissue and help in healing the wounds. I had been drinking high amounts of Ensure, but didn't like all the sugar I was consuming with it, so the protein drinks were helpful.

Also, as soon as some of the fluid cultures came back positive for bacterial infection, my surgeon immediately consulted with an infectious diseases specialist (only because they have the latest information on bacterial infections and the right antibiotics to try). It might be worth asking the surgeon about the antibiotics your son is currently on and whether they are the right ones for his infection. The first bout of antibiotics that the specialist put me on wasn't raising my WBC at all, so we were always on him about how long to keep trying the antibiotics before trying something else. Our question was always how long we should wait for the antibiotics to kick in.

You might also want to talk to the stoma nurses and see whether they can offer up information based on their experience with other clients. Oftentimes, because they've seen so many ostomy patients, they're pretty good about brainstorming with you and figuring out what may be going on.

I know that there are others who have also had complications after surgery on this site and may be able to be more helpful than my story may be for you.

Here's hoping that your son's recovery starts to really turn itself around quick and that things go much smoother.

Wishing you both well,

Kismet

 

[Terriernut]

JKcandy, wow. What an awful time your son is having! I know you said he is an adult, but how old is he??

I'm glad he's had a firm diagnosis, as that will help him down the line with treatment. You say he's had an ileostomy, but does that mean his entire colon has been removed? Can you tell us exactly what proceedure has been done? Do they feel it is temporary, or is it permanent? (many have temp ileostomies and there are many surgical proceedures)

Very rare complications in your sons case! A stoma infection is fairly rare. I cant help with what to ask the surgeon unless we know exactly what proceedure was done. Also, probably a bit more info on where the problem was and is with the crohn's.

My heart goes out to you and your son...bless you! :hug::kiss::hug::kiss:

 

[jkcandy]

Surgery

I posted about my adult son who just had ileostomy surgery. To give your a bit more history. He is 35 years old and starting having problems when he was about 23. At that time they told him he had uc. About 10 years ago he had a j pouch. he did this because all the meds that they usually prescribe didn't work and he didn't want to be on Prednisone all the time. Things were fine up until a year ago. He lost a lot of weight, had chills, fever, aches, joints ached so bad it hurt to walk. he didn't want to go on heavy duty drugs like remicade,humera etc. When they did the surgery they told him that they was concerned because mesentery was extremely thick and they had a hard time pulling intestine thru. They wasn't sure about blood flo, but the stoma did work and they was pleased. But he didn't heal like he was suppose to and his stomach was hard and distended and when They did a cat scan it showed abscess. They drained one but it did't help and when the went for another cat scan they put another drain in and they didn't like what they saw so back into surgery to make sure there was no perforations in intestines -which there.
wasn't so they irrigated really well and they cultured fluid and found about 4
different bacetria'. They put him on vycomycin for 2weeks thru a pic line at home. About 10 days later ended up In hospital with sepsis. When they did a cat scan there they did see some edema in abdomen but they believe that
It was still from the abscess in stomach. He is now on another antibiotic. His stoma at (about 9 o'clock ) the skin around is hard and tender and pus will come out of ileostomy on side The dr. Thinks that there is a small cavity just
below stoma that is holding stool and causing infection. He is hoping this little cavity will seal itself up. If this doesn't seal itself up he will have to have another surgery. The doctor feels it is improving. The dr. Said this shouldn't of happened and he is not sure why it did. This is the area the bag keeps leaking from. He can't seem to get past 2 maybe 3 days without having to change. My son thought long and hard about surgery but felt he had no other options and that this would help him feel better but so far that has not been
the case. just wondering if anyone has any thought on his situations or have dealt with this kind of problem.

 

[muppet]

I'm so sorry you're having so much trouble. Stories like this are the reason that I'm dead set against surgery for my daughter despite medication being extremely problematic for her.

 

[Terriernut]

That many abcesses and infections is scary. I'm with Kismet on this, they need to ask a specialist in infectious disease to have a look. Either that, or something is wrong with his immune system, or something is wrong with the cleanliness at the hospital?

I cant see them wanting to do anything else surgery wise at this point until he is stable and clear of infection. Have they put him on prednisone by any chance? I mean usually us crohnies heal slow anyway, but if they've put him on pred or any other immunosuppressive it'll make it so much harder for him to get free of these infections.

Again, my heart goes out to you and your son.
:ghug:

 

[jkcandy]

He asked about taking prednisone and they said no that would not be stood thing. He was on prednisone the months leading up to surgery. But. Stopped about a month before. Dr said they don't like u on prednisone before surgery but if need be to keep inflammation now then ok.

 

[aimeey17]

Hi everyone, I had a colectomy with jpouch back in 2011 but do to a recent year filled with cuffitis and fistulas I have been diverted back to an illeostomy (hopefully temporarily). I am 9 days post open and have noticed a harder area on one side of my Ostomy that causes quite a bit of what looks like puss to pour out of the atoms itself when I press it, no fever but I have been having increased pain, loss of appetite, and night sweats. I see my surgeon tomorrow and am now worried of infection. Anyone else have any experience with this.

 

[2thFairy]

From one of your posts in another thread, I take it you have Crohn's. If that is true, I don't think your surgeon would recommend you keeping your J-pouch, especially with all of the problems you are having. It sounds like you are in the middle of a pretty good flare.

I hope your surgeon will be able to set your mind at ease about the possible infection at your stoma site. Let us know what you find out tomorrow!

 

[aimeey17]

I hope I get to keep it out of all the complications ive had fistulas, fissures, cuffitis, iritis, ive never had pouchitis. My pouch moucosa has always been healthy. Just cant think what else a puss like substance pouring from the stoma could be but infection just find it strange that there's no fever. Didnt know if anyone else had ever experienced something like it.

 

[2thFairy]

I have a loop ileostomy and sometimes I get mucous coming out of the "inactive" side of the stoma. It is usually white in color. However, I don't have any symptoms like you are experiencing. Hopefully it is nothing!

 

[aimeey17]

Hey guys, thought I'd give an update. I went for my appointment and was admitted. They did a ct scan which showed an abscess around the ostomy however they couldn't figure out how puss was coming out from my stoma. Finally after going back and looking at the surgery notes and talking with radiology their theory is that the puss is working its way through a staple line on the inside of my intestine then coming out of the stoma. There doing IV antibiotics and radiology will be putting in a drain at some point today in hopes the reservoir clears. my question for them was if puss is making its way into the intestine and out of the stoma then couldnt stool leak out of the intestine into my abdominal cavity but they said they think that's unlikely but after the drainage we'll go from there I might need a reparative surgery as well.

 

[2thFairy]

Oh no! Glad you are being taken care of!!!