Met with a colorectal seurgon today at St. Vincents who siad that in order to feel better I needed to get rid of my colon. She said that I have had extensive testing, and have exhausted my non-surgical options. There are no more medications or therapies to try. We have tried them all. Ugh, I was holding out for a mirical drug to come along and fix me!
She explained that there are two surgeries for me to consider.
First is an ileostomy where they leave the colon in place. If my pain and symptyoms disappear then we would proceed with taking the colon out.
The seccond is colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis. This path would consist of removing the colon and attaching the small intestine to my rectum.
Before we begin discussing specifics of either surgery she wantes me to complete yet another sitzmarker study to confirm the diagnosis of colonic inertia, she wants an updated look. The last sitzmarker study was done in August of 2012.
So off I went downstairs at St. Vincents once again to the raidiology/x-ray department. By now they all know me by my first name! They greet me with "Hi Chelsea, why are you back?" Ha ha...wait that means I have spent way too much time at the hospital, dang! The things I find funny these days. Anywhoo, I took the pill for the sitzmarker study imediately following the appointment so there are 24 radioactive markers floating in my belly.
She explained that there are two surgeries for me to consider.
First is an ileostomy where they leave the colon in place. If my pain and symptyoms disappear then we would proceed with taking the colon out.
The seccond is colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis. This path would consist of removing the colon and attaching the small intestine to my rectum.
Before we begin discussing specifics of either surgery she wantes me to complete yet another sitzmarker study to confirm the diagnosis of colonic inertia, she wants an updated look. The last sitzmarker study was done in August of 2012.
So off I went downstairs at St. Vincents once again to the raidiology/x-ray department. By now they all know me by my first name! They greet me with "Hi Chelsea, why are you back?" Ha ha...wait that means I have spent way too much time at the hospital, dang! The things I find funny these days. Anywhoo, I took the pill for the sitzmarker study imediately following the appointment so there are 24 radioactive markers floating in my belly.
The seurgon we saw today is a highly regarded colorectal surgeon. She is very straight to the point and does not mess around. We are also going to go to my previous seurgon that performed my gallbladder surgery for a "seccond opinion". He is one of the best seurgons in the US.