hello my name is tommy, and I am new to this site. I hadhad 1st part of j pouch surgery on 10/16/2012 and I am still having extreme pain and bleeding in ileostomy bag. After coming home on 10/20 I was still in a lot of pain ileostomy was giving me problems. I am more times than not filling up bag with blood or looks like clotting blood. My stomach feels extremly tight and I am very uncomfortable. I went back to hospital last night because of the pain and what appears to be a bag full of blood. They took exrays and blood, the doctors said evrything looks good. hemoglobin count was up everything else looked good and sent me home. I do think there is something wrong because of all the pain I'm still in and it's almost 2 weeks after surgery, and ileostomy bag is still not being consistant in forming stool. I have perscription of oxycodone 30mg every 6 hours. I take pain meds as perscribed but it does not seem to help, or wroks for a short time. I would like to know what is and isn't normal and am I just be a baby and hypocondriact. Please help
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Pain is, to an extent, normal after this huge procedure. What seems odd is the blood collecting in your bag. Are you eating a lot of reddish food (like beets)? I'd let your surgeon know as soon as you can to be safe, even though the x-rays and such came out negative.
Is it possible that the blood is just at the exit point?
Did they do a stool analysis? This would be an important step.
Are you watching your diet? I was told to avoid nuts, popcorn, and fried food at all costs as it could cause a blockage.
Perhaps a few days of liquid only diet might help.
It could also be a partial blockage.
As for pain, in my case, the only pain I had was from lack of being able to empty my bladder. All the pain medication affected my ability to pee. It was the worst pain I ever experienced in my life. Once I started peeing again, the pain went away.
Just some ideas.
Good luck!
Solomin
Did they do a stool analysis? This would be an important step.
Are you watching your diet? I was told to avoid nuts, popcorn, and fried food at all costs as it could cause a blockage.
Perhaps a few days of liquid only diet might help.
It could also be a partial blockage.
As for pain, in my case, the only pain I had was from lack of being able to empty my bladder. All the pain medication affected my ability to pee. It was the worst pain I ever experienced in my life. Once I started peeing again, the pain went away.
Just some ideas.
Good luck!
Solomin
The stoma has a lot of blood vessels and can bleed easily if irritated. You may want to check around the stoma; if your wafer/barrier ring is too small it could be cutting into the stoma and causing bleeding. A stitch pulling out is another possiblity. However, I want to stress that having your ostomy bag fill with blood is definitely not normal. One thing to consider; are you eating any red coloured foods? Pretty much any of the following can cause a reddening of the stool: beets, anything tomoto based (tomato/vegetable juice, tomato soup, ketchup, etc, etc), red, pink or purple coloured Gatorade/sports drinks, Jello, red candies, etc...
Otherwise, please call your surgeon as soon as possible. I honestly think it was irresponsible of the ER to send you home if you are bleeding into your bag. That is not the normal course.
One more thing just occurred to me. Your stool may be too thick to pass. I had motility issues shortly after my takedown because my stool was too thick. You are on a lot of pain killers which can cause constipation. I was advised to sip prune juice every 30 minutes (just a few sips) and that eventually helped me pass stool and relieved my discomfort.
Otherwise, please call your surgeon as soon as possible. I honestly think it was irresponsible of the ER to send you home if you are bleeding into your bag. That is not the normal course.
One more thing just occurred to me. Your stool may be too thick to pass. I had motility issues shortly after my takedown because my stool was too thick. You are on a lot of pain killers which can cause constipation. I was advised to sip prune juice every 30 minutes (just a few sips) and that eventually helped me pass stool and relieved my discomfort.