New member - just saying hello!

It was at Hines VA in Illinois,my doctor who was doing the surgery for 8 years and still learning. It was a night mare and some how they have a nerve stitched into the stoma,but I guess I had better luck then the Cardenal of Chicago,he was in and out for 5 weeks with problems.He had his the day after me and I was out 3 weeks before him,His was done at the Univerity of Illinos,which the VA is a part of,all the doctors are out of the U of I.

Where on earth did you have your surgery and was it perhaps Dr. Frankenstein who operated on you.......Please name names so we can all stay faaaar faaaar away .....Pat

I also had a epidural but it didn't work,only worked on the left side so I woke up in screaming agony,they put the computer on it but couldn't get it the the right side,it took 5 days of morphine to get me down to an 8 or 9 on the pain scale,I could not eat a bite for the 13 days I was in there,I had to get home so I could eat,they wanted to keep me there an extra day or two but I checked out.When I got home I started eating,lost 50 lbs the two times I was in the hospital,down to 190 but am now at 210 and feel O.K. at this weight.

I'm in Florida,
I'll try the decaf.I might be able to live with that.I got 300 out yesterday,but still had 200 in the bag,one advantage of the nerve at the top of my stoma is I have know problem finding the hole for the stoma with the bag on since it's hard to see.Hopefully someday when the leaking slows down I'll ask the stoma nurse to have the doctor find the nerve that gives me all the pain,It feels like I'm sticking a steel rod thru my side when I put the cath in,its fine inside just at the tip,so I'm guessing they stitched a nerve right at the top of the stoma.I was in surgery for 13 hours and 7 days in intensive care and 7 more till I got out.Before the surgery the doctors asked if they could use my appendix to support my stoma and I said sure.I had mine done at Hines in Chicago and the supervising doctor did the Cardinal the next day,I was out 3 weeks before the Cardinal because they nicked an artery and a couple other problems.

Are you in the UK, xcv461? I loved coffee (cappuchino) too but the benefits of not having it far outweighed the problems I had with it. I gave up black coffee a while before I had my ops so don't really want to go back to it now. There are lots of good decafs here too....BJ

well the lactaid is beneficial for the normal bowels....but....but...the little bowel that has become a bladder just has its own personality and will create more mucus whenever it has a mind to...be it dairy...or whatever..it will keep you guessing for a while but you'll figure it out.....Mine also does not like the barium i have to drink for my CT scans...i don't like it either and i've tried to reason with it but it has its way with me anyway! Pat