My condition before surgery
April 20, 2009This video is for everybody considering surgery. It’s sometimes hard to know if your condition is “bad enough” to have surgery. This video describes where I was before surgery. Some might listen to my testimony and think I wasn’t very sick at all, but after trying all available medicines and having none of them work, it was only a matter of weeks before my health completely fell apart.
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
Question: For those who’ve had surgery, how sick were you before you went under the knife? For those who haven’t had surgery, how sick will you let yourself get before considering surgery? Answer this post please!
This is going to be long, I’m sorry.
I had a colectomy in 2008. Before that my condition went up and down for years. I had a hospital stay for almost three weeks in 2007 and was on 6mp ever since. After about a year I had to restart remicade bc 6mp and steroids failed. I could not work anymore. A colonoscopy showed a worsening left sided UC. At that time I knew that a colectomy was just a matter of time. So I started looking for a pouch surgeon. The remicade did work, but only for two weeks. So every month I had two weeks in which I would get stronger, and two weeks in which everything turned bad again. Then I was too weak for almost anything. Had to go to the bathroom 8 times a day, had bloody and watery stool, but I had no accidents and I slept well all through the night. Only had pain during bowel movements.
After about two months of waiting for an appointment with a pouch surgeon I ran out of time when my condition suddenly deteriorated rapidly.
Had to be admitted to hospital where they tried to patch me up (nutrition wise) for surgery as best they could. A few days later I had the colectomy. The surgeon told me afterwards that I had developed pancolitis.
In hindsight I waited too long. I should have opted for surgery when I was still working and had to start taking steroids again on top of 6mp. And certainly a few weeks earlier than I actually admitted myself to hospital. Nonetheless, I don’t regret trying everything. I don’t have to second guess if a colectomy was really necessary.
Everyone probably has his or her own limits. Being terrified of surgery was a factor in letting things get out of hand. I played down my symptoms and kept hoping the remicade-effect might hold after all… In the meanwhile I had no life to speak of for almost three months.