Weak bladder after surgery

[Franners]

I had surgery 16 weeks ago now to remove my entire colon including the rectum and anus but just these last few weeks i have been suffering with an extremely weak bladder.
for example i feel full all the time and have had a few instances of a small leak. thankfully i was wearing pads by this stage as i was fed up of wetting myself.

I did have an issue with being able to go for a tinkle before i was discharged from the hospital and things seemed to be ok but as i'm still not fully healed around where my anus used to be it is now starting to concern me quite a bit.
I was wondering if anyone else had suffered with bladder issues after major surgery like mine and how long it has taken them to heal as i'm afraid there is something else wrong with me.

I have been tested for infections several times and they have all come back clear and my cell count has also come back normal so I'm stuck as tgo where to go from here as i don't have a great deal of faith in my gp and not sure if i should mention this to my GI as the surgical team discharged me from their services back in march.

 

[Jaano711]

Hi franners
I had mine all removed in August last year. I have had the same issues. When I asked my surgeon why, he told me that they had to remove a section of my pelvic floor muscles, and that this was what can happen. i have been religiously doing pelvic floor exercises and the issue seem to have improved a little. i do however feel that once I have urinated there seems to be more that leaks when i stand up from the toilet. i suppose that I just have to live with it, and join all those women with lbl (light bladder leakage). Before my panproctocolectomy I used to have to worry about leaking fistulas around my under carriage, and used to always have to wear a pad to catch any discharge, now I find myself having to pad up for the lbl.

I suggest you ask your gastro if he has your surgical report that may shed some light on if your pelvic floor was compromised by the surgery? If he doesnt know is there anyway that you can get the information from your surgical team?

Hope you can get to the bottom of this! I am yet to find out if there is any kind of surgical procedure that may help me, but I am also not in a hurry to go through surgery, so will have to live with the problem for the time being.

 

[Franners]

thank you, at least i know i'm not being silly about it now.
I already have an appointment with my GI next week so I can add it to the list of questions I have for him.

 

[emacx]

I only had my sigmoid colon removed but it was an open surgery. I am six weeks post op
I have been having similar issues. My bladder feels full and I feel like it is not empting fully. I dribble a bit. I have been told that with major lower abdominal surgery the handling, stretching and pulling causes trauma to the bladder and can take up to six months to mend.