Hi Laural,
I was sick a kid too, had my first run of surgeries between 2-3yrs the second run at 9-11yrs and then all through my adolecence...
Back then they didn't talk about PTSD, didn't know what it was or even understand it...so when I suddenly got 'moody' as my mom called it or deperessed, became an insomniac or had anxiety people couldn't wrap their heads around it...I was a kid, my 'disease was over' or the surgery was successful and I should have been able to move on; end of story.
But it does not work like that and even if kids are resilliant and capable of recovering quickly it does not mean that the trauma isn't there, hiding in a corner of our minds...every flu, gastro or other intestinal upset sent me off on a tangent...my symptoms were teariness, sleeplessness and anxiety...an unspeakable fear of unameable things...I didn't have the words to explain it to adults at the time (and they just would listen anyway)...
Now I know that it was PTSD and that I should have had some sort of talk-therapy, the ability to name my fears to people who were willing to listen...in those days I was told to shut-up, it was over and that I should get on with my life...a very bad way to treat it.
You are an allert and attentive mom who is in tune with your child...a rare and excellent thing...talk to him, let him name his fear, put him into some sort of group therapy for sick kids who have experienced the same sort of thing as he has (your doctor or hospital may be able to help you with it or you can create your own parent-kid group with their help)...he needs to feel listened to and understood and you seem to be good at it...
PTSD comes, as the name says, Post trauma and can be awakened by any incident even many years later. For me, in those days, my only relief was sports...it allowed me to reduce my anxiety and feel a measure of control over my body...
Hope that this can help you.
Sharon

Thank you Sharon. Your words are very helpful and confirm what I have been thinking. I am planning to make an appointment with a therapist as soon as possible. Now that my son has physical health, I want to make sure his mental health doesn't suffer. I think you are so right about sports being helpful. My son is a competitive swimmer and trains year round. He loves the sport and some of his anxiety comes from fearing he'll someday have to go back to a bag, which would end competitive swimming. Hopefully, working through this with a therapist and leaning on faith and family will get him through this before it gets any bigger! Thank you for taking the time to answer my post.

Laurel,

Sharon gives excellent advice! Good for you looking for a therapist for your son. Hopefully you will find one he is comfortable with, if not, keep looking. My daughter feels that therapy helps a lot.

I highly recommend the therapist option.

I was diagnosed with PTSD after my colectomy (at age 26). I went thru many therapists trying to find a good fit, unfortunately I was unable to.

The hard part is finding one who will treat it as PTSD and not convince you it is depression or an anxiety disorder.

Best of luck to you and your son.

I was lucky and found a good therapist on the second try. I've found the EMDR approach to treating it works well so you might want to look for someone that treats PTSD utilizing this method. The treatment still used the name but has moved on from using the eye therapy. For instance my therapist uses small stone like things I hold in my hands that buzz. I tell you this for when you look it up on line. You might also want to search for someone that has dealth with someone that has had or does have chronic pain. That might be a big concern of his, the pain coming back. That is a huge trauma. We also do talk therapy. The EMDR is not the main therapy that we do. I just wanted to share with you how my PTSD therapy had been going.

I looked at a lot of resumes on line from websites referenced in yellow page ads.

I hope he is feeling better soon.

I will also be able seeking a therapist. I have realized how much my thoughts and mental has changed since I've had the surgeries. I was the absolutely most positive easy going person you would ever know and after all the trauma my body has been through there's no question it is going to affect your mental status. There are days I just feel worthless and depressed for no reason and have extreme anxiety. I used to trick myself into thinking I was getting sick again because I kept having to go back for infections time after time. Every little thing that felt odd in my body would automatically turn in to that I was getting sick again and I had to rush to the ER. It become a lot of mental more than physical most of the time. I'm thinking he might be feeling the way he is because his mind is tricking him into thinking something is wrong when it may not be and unfortunate stress and anxiety will do that to anyone who has been through what he has. I would suggest a therapist if he is unable to get out of the funk himself but encouraging positive thinking and creating a fun positive environment for him is probably the best thing at this point. When he is happy and having fun and laughing at different things he will ignore all that other stuff and will help his recovery extremely. Just my point of view from the experiences I have had with this surgery.

P.S. I would like to commend him for his bravery at such a young age. I'm thirty and this surgery scared the crap out of me and I couldn't imagine having to get it done at that age. He's a soldier. Tell him to keep fighting.

Another thing is the gut mind connection. There are books on it. Without our colons there are chemicals that are not getting to our brains that should be. I think I'm probably going to be on some kind of antidepressant for the rest of my life.

I hope it might not be that way for a child as they are young and not fully developed, hopefully the body accommodates. I know they do not want to put children on these medications unless absolutely necessary. I don't know but this is something you may want to look into.

My adult daughter read a book on it and is hopefully doing everything right for her family. She had polyps at 24 and is faithful about her metamucil etc. They only did her colonoscopy, when she saw blood, at that young age as I had UC.