Hello all,
well I had my take down 6-5-07 was sent home on 6-7-07. I have been in alot of pain since I have been home from the hospital. I was sent home with Darvacet. I have to continuely take the pain meds every 4 hours or I am in severe pain in the area my stoma site was. Mainly cramping & kinda of burning sensation in the abdominal area. (no fever or any other symptoms)
Are my expecatations too high, I thought By today (Sat) surgery was Tues I would feel much better.(my surgeries were doen lapro)
While in hosptal directly after surgery I could not uriniate so they had to catheritize me twice. I about flipped that was no fun at all. I got home Thurs night from hospital, Friday morning I was at urologist with blood in my urine, Dr said I have slight infection might of been from being catherized .The urogolist gave me RX for Levoquin and a sample of Flomax to help with urination.
Right now what it boils down to is I am still in pain in abdomnial area (enough for paid meds which I usually NEVER take) very nauseated on & off (taking Zofran), after one day on the anitibitoc for the blood in urine I do see less blood today.
I am having very loose Bm's probably about 10-12 a day, so I guess that is the only thing working Ok at this point.I feel very sad right now depressed....I don't know why . I know I must be rambling....how long did everyone else take pain meds once home from take down?

everyone is differnt i,ms till on pain meds but then again I been on them for about 3 yrs my take down was march 14...

Hi Texas Gal
Good to see you are home. I had my TD on 5-21 and I am still taking dilaudid . I had 13 staples on my stoma site due to lots of acar tissue and adhesions that had to be removed the pain meds also help my BB which has been kind of a trial and error thing with food. My bm are at 6-10 a day.. It gets better though and I feel much better. I would suggest bananas rice etc to firm things up and I take one immoduim before I eat and that helps slow things down. Just take it easy and rest and watch what you eat for the first 3 weeks. I also take culturelle probiotic which I think has helped. Invest in a sitz bath abd barrier cream for BB as well. Sorry for rambling but I hope this helps .
Take Care

I'm so sorry to hear your having so much pain. Does your surgeon give you any reasons what could be causing the stoma area pain? Hopefully you get the infection cleared up soon because that is probably making you feel all around crappy on top of every thing else.

I don't really have any advise just want to try to encourage you to hang in there.

I was also on dilaudid when I was discharged from the hospital which was nine days after the surgery. I eventually decided to avoid anything that happened to be an opioid.

Pain is such a personal matter because no one can assess your true level of discomfort. You can take a personal risk and try something over the counter. That's up to you. However, I'd like to point out that your surgery was relatively recent. Some people need pain medication to recover, there's no real harm in that.

Hey Texasgal...

I had to self cath for 2 months after step one, and about a week after step two. Two weeks ago I had a kidney stone, they said was most likely caused from dehydration. My takedown was Dec. 10th, I still take pain meds occasionally. Mostly gas pain. It does get way better. Step two was not much better then step one for me. Alot of people sail right through step two, but not everyone. We are all different. The gas pain after step two was the worst! Take care.

Hi Texas Gal from a fellow Texan.

Sorry to hear about your pain. My surgeon told me not to try to be John Wayne. I understood him to say pain could slow down the healing process. Talk to your doctor and let him know that you are in pain. Keep your chin up. You've got lots of support and prayers from the members of this forum.

Tadpole
66 years old with a 16 year old J Pouch..

Hi Texasgal!
So sorry you're in all this pain. The old offer is still on, like after your step 1: anytime you need to rant or cry or talk rather than write, just send me an sms and I can call you. Hang in there!