Content Overview
- Summary
- Resection: Just Before The Procedure
- Resection: Preparation For A Colectomy
- Resection: The Procedure In The Operating Room
- Resection: Recovery From The Operation
- Resection: The Hospital Stay
- Resection: Before You Leave The Hospital
- Resection: After You Leave The Hospital
- Resection: Side Effects Of Surgery
- Resection: Open Surgery vs. Laproscopy (Laproscopic surgery)
Surgery For Colon Cancer: Stages II, III, IV
Resection: Side Effects Of Surgery
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Common side effects of colorectal surgery include:
- Pain
- The time it takes to heal after surgery is different for each person. You may be uncomfortable for the first few days. Medicine can help control your pain.
- Pain control is important in the healing process. It is important to stay ahead of the pain. It is important that you take you pain medication as instructed and on a regular basis. It is preferable to stay ahead of the pain.
- Before surgery, you should discuss the plan for pain relief with your doctor or nurse.
- After surgery, your doctor can adjust the plan if you need more pain relief.
- Do not be concerned about becoming addicted to pain drugs. Studies indicate addiction doesn’t happen in these circumstances. (To learn how to deal with pain, see Pain 101).
- Ostomy and Stoma
- When a section of your colon or rectum is removed, the surgeon can usually reconnect the remaining sections. However, sometimes reconnection is not possible. In this case, the surgeon creates a new path for waste to leave your body. The surgeon makes an opening, a stoma, in the wall of the abdomen, connects the upper end of the intestine to the stoma, and closes the other end. The operation to create the stoma is called a colostomy. A flat bag fits over the stoma to collect waste, and a special adhesive holds it in place.
- For many people, the stoma is temporary. It is needed only until the colon or rectum heals from surgery. After healing takes place, the surgeon reconnects the parts of the intestine and closes the stoma. Some people, especially those with a tumor in the lower rectum, need a permanent colostomy.
- People who have a colostomy may have irritation of the skin around the stoma. Your doctor, your nurse, or an enterostomal therapist (a professional trained in ostomies) can teach you how to clean the area and prevent irritation and infection. (For information about minimizing risk of infection in your day-to-day life, click here).
- For more information about ostomies, including care of and living with, click here.
- Change in Bowel Function
- Surgery sometimes causes constipation or diarrhea. Your health care team monitors you for signs of bleeding, infection, or other problems requiring immediate treatment. (For information about how to avoid infection on a day-to-day basis, click here).
- In order to avoid becoming constipated, drink plenty of water, eat foods that are high in fiber as recommended by your doctor and take stool softeners or laxatives as instructed.
- Do not use enemas within three months after surgery without instruction from your doctor.
- Urinary Function
- With a rectal resection, urinary function may change because the nerves may be bruised during the surgery.
- While the loss of urinary control is generally not permanent, some patients will need a urinary catheter for longer than usual, medication, or both on a temporary basis.
- Fatigue. It is common to feel tired or weak for a while. To learn how to cope with fatigue, click here.
- Sexual Function
- Men:
- A resection can cause “dry” orgasms with no ejaculation by damaging the nerves that control ejaculation. Alternatively, the result could be “retrograde ejaculation” – the semen goes backward into your bladder. With both dry orgasms and retrograde ejaculation a man can still get an erection. With retrograde ejaculation, a man can still father a child because doctors can recover sperm cells from urine or from testicles with minor surgery. The sperm is then used to impregnate a woman by means of in vitro fertilization.
- It is possible that a resection may stop erections totally or the ability to reach orgasm. There are alternatives to permit sex. See Erectile Dysfunction.
- Women: There is generally no loss of sexual function, though the vagina may become dry or irritated for a while which can cause painful intercourse. In some cases the change is permanent.
- Men:
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