i had my surgery april 4th and was in the hospital for a month due to a bad e-coli infection.i had 2 huge open wounds on the abdomin that needed wound vac treatment and was in hospital for a month. roughly 10 weeks later(now), i am still dealing with these wounds. they keep over granulating and i have to go to my surgeon every week to have him silver nitrate them and then cuts the excess off with scissors and then nitrates them again. want to talk about pain !! they give me nothing for the pain. i have had this done 5 times already. my surgeon says i am a great healer and that is why my tissue is growing way to fast for the skin to close them up. they are slowly getting smaller and i mean slowly. they are right under my stoma so i have to apply wound dressing to them and then apply my bag, everything is very close. then the wounds start to ooze from under the bandage and it stinks horribly. so i end up doing a complete change every 2 sometimes 3 days. i go back in for xrays and scope on july 1st to check status of my pouch, if everything looks good i can name my surgery date. i am hesitant because i lost 25 lbs. in hospital and i want to gain alot back before surgery # 2. i got about 7 back as of today. my doctor stitches the stoma site after surgery, i didnt want another open wound to heal, but then again thats how i got the other 2 wounds. it was done lapo, and infection set in and they had to open up the sites to clean them out. i have been through hell and i am in constant pain today from these darn wounds. they are right at my waistline and of course are always being rubbed on and moved around. any words of encouragement for me? my doctor and ostomy nurses keep telling me that i have been through hell and have really been great about everything. i think my wife thinks i am a wuss. shes always asking me when am i going to be better, its been 10 weeks now. these wounds are painful.

I'm in the exact same boat. I had step 1 of surgery 4/14 and unfortunately, after release from the hospital a week later, I was rushed back the same day for emergency surgery because my bowel twisted. so i had two surgeries a week apart. Since then, i was recovering well and after about 3 weeks or so got an infection and had to have part of my scar reopened and pack and dress it. I'm a bit queezy so i hated it. Sure enough, a bit further up on the scar another opening sprung up and this one even bigger. so now i'm packing and dressing two. after about two weeks, the surgeon took a look and said i no longer had to pack them, just dress them and let them drain and wow, they drained alot. i had to change dressing 4-5 times a day. it looked as if it were healing and then, whaddya know, another opening and this one right under the stoma and under the appliance. So it's hard to take care of and when it drains, it compromises the adhesive and looks like there's a potential for leakage. I stay proactive and change the bag every morning rather than wait for a leak. saw the doc this week as i was concerned that the infection wasn't going away but he assured me it just takes time. simply keep it clean, keep it covered and let it drain. I shower everyday without the appliance on so i can get clean fresh water to run over the wounds. the other thing is to stay positive. separately, i just completed registration for the site (after obsessing over the posts for days). i want to post something because i have many questions but cant seem to figure out how to make a post in general discussion or elsewhere, can you tell me how? sorry this was so long, i just identified.

Weird, same thing happened to me too. They reopened my incision because I had an ileus and needed another surgery. They thought the wounds were just seromas but then they started draining this thick, AWFUL smelling pus. Went on like that for 2 weeks, the visiting nurse kept telling me it was fine but finally I went to the ER and found out it was e.coli. Had a full round of IV antibiotics, but the infection came back, and my wounds (which had healed over) reopened and starting draining the same pus, so I got put back on the antibiotics.

You have been through hell. Trust me, I know, e.coli is hell. Honestly, the only thing you can do is stay positive. I know how hard it is to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but you've just got to get through it. The only thing that kept me alive was Xanax and a multitude of painkillers, but I don't suggest that route as I'm now horribly addicted. But I'll jump that hurdle when I get to it. One thing at a time.

Jleib-click the button that says "new" on the top, then click discussion.

Hi,
You guys have had it rough. I've had similar experience, after my first surgery, illeostomy I had bad infection, fever and had to have my fluids drained with another bag. Two bags when I thought I only signed up for one. i slowly adapted to life with the bag, and it wasn't that bad, certainly better then colitis.
I had my takedown pulldown removal of bag last Wed. June 11, released june 14th thought I was on easy street and bam, pain at incision point. Immediate admission to hospital. No food or drink.
It's frustrating to read that so many complications. Sometimes I wonder if living with the colitis would of been better. that was hell, but I did not have any overnight stays.

lol Eric I had three bags- one on my wound, one on my ostomy, and one for my buttdrain. I seemed to be really excited about it in ICU when I was high out of my mind. The nurses told me I thought it was hysterical and wouldn't stop talking about it.

well here we are another week down and no changes. wound sites still have not changed. they are raised again and overgranulating. looks like another silver nitrate treatment next week. all my pain and frustrations are from this and not my actual surgery. one good thing though, i actually gained 2 pounds and i am at 130 lbs. as of last night.so i am up from 122 now. my goal is to add 2 lbs. every week. i need to get up to 140-145 for step 2 takedown. hopefully scheduled early August.i would hope my wound sites would be healed by then but i doubt it.