Cancer Support and Caregivers Who Are Trail Blazers!

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

I wonder why PT is coming in.

They had me up and walking the day after surgery. It is all about getting the bowels moving. I walked around that unit for 6 days until I finally had a bowel movement and could go home (went home on day 7).

The second surgery took longer. I was in there for 12 days or something like that (the first 3 were spent with me just laying there, waiting to see if somehow the adhesions weren't as bad as they appeared and surgery wouldn't be necessary). I was up and walking every hour I wanted out so bad. The nurses were like, what the hell?

Finally an old school midnight shift nurse came in and said, "I don't care that they say, you are drinking prune juice tonight". Did I go to the bathroom? Damn straight I did. (supposedly one is not supposed to drink prune juice anymore after a colon resection). The other secret? Lay on her left side.

Ooops, meant to say the nurse said, "I don't care WHAT they say", not THAT they say. Everyone knows prune juice helps to have a bowel movement, but supposedly for people with colon resections the sediment is bad for you. I knew this, but I am glad that I trusted the nurse and just went with it. You can't get released from the hospital until you have a bowel movement after a resection.

It was the same nurse that told me to lay on my left side. I know that this really does help b/c I found that after being home, until my bowel system got to a semi-regular state, every time I rolled over to my left side in bed, I had to pop up to go to the bathroom. Kind of weird.

Anyway, you will find that in a 1-3 days Clay will become obsessed with having a bowel movement in order to get the hell out of there! Plus, the nurses ask you every other minute if you have had one. They also warn you of this! lol