During early 2007 I started getting extreme pains in my lower left stomach. On attending A & E I was admitted to hospital for pain control (I V Morphine) and I V antibiotics. The diagnosis was that I was suffering from Diverticulitis; this was confirmed by scan and endoscope.
For the next two years I would end up in hospital at least once every two to three months with another severe attack. When I questioned about how to deal with this, I was told that it needed to be surgically resolved however, because of my underlying conditions (diabetes/angina), the risk of surgery was deemed to be too high. This was the view of at least three consultants I spoke to.
Following a consultation with my GP, it was decided to refer me to one of the surgical teams at another hospital for a second opinion on my condition. I ended up under the care of another GI consultant and after some initial investigations I was told that it may be possible to carry out the procedure, removal of the Sigmoid Colon, via Laparoscopic surgery, thus greatly reducing the risk of surgery. This course of action was agreed and mid 2008 I was put onto his elective surgery list.
The sporadic attacks and short stay’s in hospital continued although each attack was getting slightly worse than the last. In January of 2009 I was admitted to my local hospital suffering a really bad attack, in fact the surgical team were very close to performing an emergency operation, but at the last minute decided to increase the antibiotics and to put me onto a liquid diet for a week. This worked and the inflammation reduced, however they said that they would write to my GI consultant, explaining how advance the condition had become.
During the following February I received an admission date for early March to have the procedure carried out. On the 3rd of March I was booked into a ward, ready for the surgery the next day. On the morning of the operation I was told that the consultant anaesthetist had decided that the risk of me having an angina attack during the operation was too high because of my stomach having to be inflated and the resultant pressure on my aorta. Because of this they were going to proceed with open surgery but using a side to side incision rather than a vertical one. By this time it was a bit too late for me to back out of it!
After the surgery I woke up in recovery, but for reasons I do not understand or have been told, I was kept in recovery for some 6 hours. When I returned to the ward I only lasted a couple of hours before being whisked off to Intensive Care because my lungs were failing. I spent the next 24 on C Pap <sp> before being taken back to the surgical ward one evening.
The next morning when I woke up, two nurses decided I needed to sit up and get out of bed. As they sat me up I felt something ‘go’ below, even though part of my pain control was an epidural. This feeling was quickly followed by what seemed like the loss of several gallons of a clear fluid and blood flooding out of my stomach. I was whisked around to the Dressings room where they removed me from the sodden bed onto a trolley and the doctors were summoned. It appears that my incision had decided to rot. When they removed the dressings the smell was awful and despite the epidural it hurt like hell.
For the next couple of day’s they replaced the dressings daily and took lots of blood samples. On the third day I started to feel distinctly unwell and indeed do not remember too much after mid day. It appears that the anastimosis had decided to break down. Subsequently I was told by my consultant that it took him 3 goes to get it to hold in the first place. Anyhow, apparently by midnight I was scanned and buy 3am was back in theatre. After the operation I was sent directly to Intensive Care and kept on life support for about 12 hours. I woke up to find I now had a Colostomy.
Of course the newly stapled incision rotted as well. At one stage the hole was some10 cm wide, a strange feeling when you can look down and see your own guts! They started to use vacuum dressings on the wound and I remained catheterised. Pain control during this time was very hit and miss, the epidural only seemed to work on my right side and after a week this was removed and I was dossed up with a variety of pain killers, pills and patches. Next I caught MRSA and spent the rest of my time in a side room being barrier nursed. It was 3 months before I saw the outside of that hospital and a further 2 months before I could end having vacuum dressing on the wound. During this time, I also developed a pelvic abscess. Somehow the abscess found a way to connect itself to my remaining 9 cm of rectal stump and drain through there, so I left hospital with a portable vacuum pump, urine drain and a rectal drain as well as me shinny new stoma!
Since my discharge from hospital I have been admitted to my local hospital a couple of times, this being because the abscess was causing pressure on my bladder and creating problems there. It was found that the function of my right kidney has been reduced because of this. I have also been admitted back to my GI consultant’s hospital on 3 occasions to have the abscess drained out under GA. I still have to flush out my rectal stump every day to remove the discharge from the abscess. I believe the majority of pain I suffer comes from a combination of the abscess itself and from where the wound has healed but sections of my intestine seem to be attached to it. I also have a couple of hernias around the colostomy that hurt in their own special way.
I am currently waiting for a date to be set for the next round of surgery. I have seen the Plastic Surgeons and they have decided that a muscle in my upper leg can be used to fill the resulting cavity when they remove the abscess, rectal stump and anus. This surgery will occur sometime later on this year if I can overcome a couple of barriers.
It is now 3 years since my surgery, my abscess continues to need draining daily and I am stuck on a raft of medication including Oxycodon (140 mg a day), Tramodol (400 mg a day), Oxynorm liquid top ups as required and the latest thing added to the mix is Sativex (google it, you will be surprised!).
Philip Martin.
For the next two years I would end up in hospital at least once every two to three months with another severe attack. When I questioned about how to deal with this, I was told that it needed to be surgically resolved however, because of my underlying conditions (diabetes/angina), the risk of surgery was deemed to be too high. This was the view of at least three consultants I spoke to.
Following a consultation with my GP, it was decided to refer me to one of the surgical teams at another hospital for a second opinion on my condition. I ended up under the care of another GI consultant and after some initial investigations I was told that it may be possible to carry out the procedure, removal of the Sigmoid Colon, via Laparoscopic surgery, thus greatly reducing the risk of surgery. This course of action was agreed and mid 2008 I was put onto his elective surgery list.
The sporadic attacks and short stay’s in hospital continued although each attack was getting slightly worse than the last. In January of 2009 I was admitted to my local hospital suffering a really bad attack, in fact the surgical team were very close to performing an emergency operation, but at the last minute decided to increase the antibiotics and to put me onto a liquid diet for a week. This worked and the inflammation reduced, however they said that they would write to my GI consultant, explaining how advance the condition had become.
During the following February I received an admission date for early March to have the procedure carried out. On the 3rd of March I was booked into a ward, ready for the surgery the next day. On the morning of the operation I was told that the consultant anaesthetist had decided that the risk of me having an angina attack during the operation was too high because of my stomach having to be inflated and the resultant pressure on my aorta. Because of this they were going to proceed with open surgery but using a side to side incision rather than a vertical one. By this time it was a bit too late for me to back out of it!
After the surgery I woke up in recovery, but for reasons I do not understand or have been told, I was kept in recovery for some 6 hours. When I returned to the ward I only lasted a couple of hours before being whisked off to Intensive Care because my lungs were failing. I spent the next 24 on C Pap <sp> before being taken back to the surgical ward one evening.
The next morning when I woke up, two nurses decided I needed to sit up and get out of bed. As they sat me up I felt something ‘go’ below, even though part of my pain control was an epidural. This feeling was quickly followed by what seemed like the loss of several gallons of a clear fluid and blood flooding out of my stomach. I was whisked around to the Dressings room where they removed me from the sodden bed onto a trolley and the doctors were summoned. It appears that my incision had decided to rot. When they removed the dressings the smell was awful and despite the epidural it hurt like hell.
For the next couple of day’s they replaced the dressings daily and took lots of blood samples. On the third day I started to feel distinctly unwell and indeed do not remember too much after mid day. It appears that the anastimosis had decided to break down. Subsequently I was told by my consultant that it took him 3 goes to get it to hold in the first place. Anyhow, apparently by midnight I was scanned and buy 3am was back in theatre. After the operation I was sent directly to Intensive Care and kept on life support for about 12 hours. I woke up to find I now had a Colostomy.
Of course the newly stapled incision rotted as well. At one stage the hole was some10 cm wide, a strange feeling when you can look down and see your own guts! They started to use vacuum dressings on the wound and I remained catheterised. Pain control during this time was very hit and miss, the epidural only seemed to work on my right side and after a week this was removed and I was dossed up with a variety of pain killers, pills and patches. Next I caught MRSA and spent the rest of my time in a side room being barrier nursed. It was 3 months before I saw the outside of that hospital and a further 2 months before I could end having vacuum dressing on the wound. During this time, I also developed a pelvic abscess. Somehow the abscess found a way to connect itself to my remaining 9 cm of rectal stump and drain through there, so I left hospital with a portable vacuum pump, urine drain and a rectal drain as well as me shinny new stoma!
Since my discharge from hospital I have been admitted to my local hospital a couple of times, this being because the abscess was causing pressure on my bladder and creating problems there. It was found that the function of my right kidney has been reduced because of this. I have also been admitted back to my GI consultant’s hospital on 3 occasions to have the abscess drained out under GA. I still have to flush out my rectal stump every day to remove the discharge from the abscess. I believe the majority of pain I suffer comes from a combination of the abscess itself and from where the wound has healed but sections of my intestine seem to be attached to it. I also have a couple of hernias around the colostomy that hurt in their own special way.
I am currently waiting for a date to be set for the next round of surgery. I have seen the Plastic Surgeons and they have decided that a muscle in my upper leg can be used to fill the resulting cavity when they remove the abscess, rectal stump and anus. This surgery will occur sometime later on this year if I can overcome a couple of barriers.
It is now 3 years since my surgery, my abscess continues to need draining daily and I am stuck on a raft of medication including Oxycodon (140 mg a day), Tramodol (400 mg a day), Oxynorm liquid top ups as required and the latest thing added to the mix is Sativex (google it, you will be surprised!).
Philip Martin.
