According to my surgeon, things shift and move around to fill up/fill in the space...generally the fat is between the muscle and the skin unless you have a lot of extra weight...men apparently can have a lot of extra fat stocked under the muscle, around the organs (think those beer bellies where the muscle seems tight under the skin but there is still a huge belly behind it...my hubby keeps pinching his skin and showing me that there is no decernable fat there...it is hiding under the muscle)...I am sure that us women can too but we usually accumulate our fat over the muscle (think love handles)...I don't remember the mdical name for the fatty organ syndrom but it does exisit where you get layer over and around them but in the best cases it isn't supposed to happen...I am sure that Jan will be able to explain it better to us.
Sharon

Great inquisitive question! Jan? What the heck does go on in there!?!

I have heard also that things shift around in there to fill up the space.

I don't know but my nice, flat belly is no more! I sticks out and is lopsided like something dropped down in that space.(small intestines maybe??) No amount of sit-ups is going to fix this!

This is kind of an interesting question. I had also heard you lose about 10 pounds of weight with the colon coming out. I dropped 25 pounds from 162 to 137 in the 8 days after colon removal. I am now hovering around 175 but have lost a lot of weight recently. Some people have mentioned changes in the contours of their abdomen in other threads as well. I think this is mainly people who had washboard abs before surgery. I even recall referring one person bemoaning their loss of washboard abs to the famous Peyton Manning Mastercard "Priceless Pep Talk" commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmX6m78zDM

I personally noticed no changes in the basic contour of my abdomen except the scar from the stoma site is concave and not very pleasant to look at.

My abdomen has a dip where my stoma used to be. The thing that I hate is that no matter how many sit ups I do, the incision around my bikini line is never going to be flat. There is always going to be a little pouch above it.

My surgeon said that everything shifts around but I know personally a lot of scar tissue built up around everything as well.

Yeah, scar tissue here too. Although Akk3769, you might tell people that you ran the bulls in Spain (?). . .the bull was faster.

That's my story. . .but no one's asked about my scar yet. Feel free to use it as your own!

Well I have a 'builders bottom' on my front, my left side sticking out more than my right,and the only scar on my whole body being the 'laparascopic' operation that never was. from my pubic bone, snaking round my 'belly button' to four inches above it (and hideous with it)! My bladder was hard to find when I had it scanned, the surgeon had 'moved it'. So I think my bladder occupies part of the site that belonged to my colon!!

There's a new cold form machine way of melting fat in the dermatologists office. It looks like a laser machine. I forget the name of it now. It looks awesome and I was ready t look into it until I heard that it didn't get rid of the skin. I have and would have to have some skin removed too. If you just have some love handles or a smaller amount removed it looks like a good way to go. I don't know what's in there, just wish here was less of it!

I also have a bit of a "dip" in my stomach where the colon would have been, when I lie flat, though it's not really noticeable when I'm standing up. My stomach is also not symmetrical--it slants down where the stoma was. My surgeon said the area of the colon would eventually fill up with new tissue. There is probably only minimal shifting, since the organs aren't free floating in the body but are held in place by connective tissues and blood vessels. Now if the surgeon had to reposition something in order to form the pouch, then that is a different matter.

I'm lopsided on my stoma scar side hanging lower too Spooky? Not too cute after 2 babies and 5 abdominal surgeries but I was hoping to be proportional. My waist and upper abdomen are a size or two larger than the rest of my bodacious body,

These posts actually made me go examine my abdomen in the mirror of my bathroom. Apart from the concave, oval shape of the scar at the stoma site, there is no other geometrical incongruity to my abdomen. The only other observation I have is of my actual surgical scar. It has faded over time because the surgery was in 1992 and that is 21 years ago, but I measure it to be approximately 14 inches in length, curving just to the left of my belly button, then zagging to the right, just below the belly button, then jutting down in a straight line to just above the base of my penis. I had believed all major abdominal surgical cuts were vertical like mine, until I saw the movie Prometheus and observed the emergency C-section being done with a horizontal cut. That was the first information I had of C-sections being done with a horizontal cut.

The small bowel can shift around a great deal, and that's a substantial portion of the contents of the abdominal cavity. The cavity isn't rigid, of course, more like a bag with a couple of sides reinforced. Adhesions often change how much things can shift.

CTBarrister, You have a long scar! Mine goes from below my belly button to the top of my pubs which also happens to be where I have a horizontal scar from having my hysterectomy 14 years before these surgeries. So with that cut to the muscles and this one I'd say I have no hope of a six pack. So on the right side where the stoma was my abdomen is lopsided.

I can't tell where my colon was either. I was also 65 pounds heaver at that time. I couldn't loose the prednisone weight until I lost the colon.

If any of you have to have a small bowel series, where you drink barium, make sure to look at what your abdomen looks like on the X-Rays now. My small intestines are floating in loose free form down to my j-pouch and look nothing like they do in the medical books with the colon and rectum in place.

TE Marie - just curious, I often feel my movement in my stomach, it ripples around pke a baby moving and poking around... Wonder if what you said about your intestines looking like they are just floating around on xray, could be plausible!

Crazy!

I have the vertical scar that goes even through the belly button and the horizontal scar that go accross the belly button. Yeah mine dips too like everyone else here.

Its an adjustment to be sure to look at yourself and I have become somewhat concsience of it so I don't go to the beach anymore. I am even uncomforatble going swimming at my brother's house. But your family will not care so I felt very supportive from my brother and his kids.

Sure, I have been asked and my gut is extended somewhat, but I tell them that my gut is like this from surgery, not because I am pregnant (I am a man) which gets them all laughing.

I once asked my priest that if we die and get to heaven, do our bodies come with us? He said only on the last day. I said, fine, but please, I hope that God does not put me in this same body. A bald person told me he was OK with that too, so long as he had hair on his head.

Rocket

I get this baby moving feeling sometimes too. I always tease my husband and say the baby is kicking!!

Holly,

Oh that is cruel (kidding). You must be driving him crazy which is funny. Laughter is always good and it helps.

Rocket.

We won't get into what mine looks like...awful would not suffice...Dr C told me that he 'hung' my intestines up and around like my colon to fill in the space (I could have gotten this wrong considering he told me over 30yrs ago)....and yes, Alien lives deep in my gut too!
Sharon

Sharon,

Alien? I thought that only happened to a guy? At least in the original movie it did. Now if it was me, it would not look like an alien, a baboon, maybe, but not an alien.

Rocket

quote:

yes, Alien lives deep in my gut too!

Sharon, you saw the movie Prometheus? I thought you were the one who started a thread about how you could not take horror films? I would have thought that emergency C-section scene would be more than what you could take, based on that thread you started on the horror of horror films.

Rocket, you apparently did not see the movie Prometheus, which is a "prequel" to the movie Alien. If you did, you would know exactly what Sharon is referring to.

CTBarrister,

No I never did see that movie. I saw Alien 2 and 3 though.

I am just kidding though. Never meant to offend anyone, more of trying to get people to laugh.

Rocket

No offense taken by me Rocket. But if you saw Alien 2 and 3, you should see Alien 1 and Prometheus, as both were much better movies than the 2 that you saw.

CTBarrister,

Thank you. The 1st Alien movie had me jump out of my seat. I thought that was scary. The other two movies were not as good.

The only other movie that had me jump out of my seat twice was Jaws. First time was when the character by Richard Dryfus is looking at the shark tooth and the head pops out of the bottom of the boat. The 2nd time is when the shark jump out of the water as the police officer is throwing chum in the water.

My favorite scary movie is the Shinning. Nicholson is perfect for that part. R E D R U M!

That made it so unreal when he was very funny in As Good As It Gets. That I thought would be out of character for him.

CT,
No, I have never seen any of them (fine, Jaws...yes, Alien...only partially between my finger while hubby laughed his head off...I prefered to do dishes...)...and not the Prometheus would not be on my to-do list...Sorry, I am a sissy, a whoos...a..whatever you care to call it, I accept...but, I still swear that Alien lives...in my pouch...and he is trying to get out as we speak!
Sharon

OK, Sharon, but by making these colorful statements you are implying that you have seen Prometheus, a movie in which the protagonist has an actual alien fetus develop in her womb, and must perform an emergency C-section on herself to get it out. Using the language you have used in your posts conjures up the searing image of that infamous scene in Prometheus, in which the heroine performs an emergency C-section on herself with the assistance of futuristic robotic surgical equipment. And she successfully removes the slithering, snarling alien fetus. That is why I thought that you had seen that movie.

Well Sharon, you have the alien in your gut but does he make noises too?

I have a baboon in mine and I'm a guy.

Which one is worse? The alien that you have or the hairy baboon that I have?

Rocket

I saw Alien so long ago I forget if they just pick out men. All I know is I've had an Alien in my gut quite frequently and don't think it cares I'm female. The author has Crohns, I believe we've discussed this before on here. That's why we relate to the feeling sooo well as he's nailed it descriptively and visually!

lovedby2, Yes I feel my intestines moving around and grumbling and sometimes I press on the area to see if I can can break up an adhesion. I have IPS and adhesions which result in daily abdominal pain. They say you can break adhesions up with massage. So far I have been unsuccessful.

quote:

I forget if they just pick out men.

It did not. The alien was indiscriminate in the sex and race of his victims (Yaphet Kotto's character is also killed by the alien in that film). In most formulaic horror films, the only common traits of the victims are that they are young and stupid. The progeny of "Alien" films, however, diversifies the victims somewhat more than is the norm.

Rocket, FYI the alien is worse than the baboon because it gnaws and claws with sharp teeth and claws. The Baboon just produces gas and bloats

So very well said TE!
Thanks for clarifying that...
Hugs

ps...how are you feeling now?
Sharon

From a guy’s stand point it means our livers can fill out the space witch equates to better beer consumption / absorption.....Happy Days

TE Marie,

Well then I am definately the baboon. I'm full of hot air. Now it explains why my teenage daughter will sometimes refer to me as "Monkey Butt" when we are playing around.

Thanks for participating in my humor.

Rocket

LOL guys!

Thanks, I'm feeling pretty good today Sharon