Recovery of ileostomy reversal 8 weeks on….
At the time of me writing this blog hubby is 8 weeks post op and its amazing at how well he is recovering. These weeks have been challenging and at times long but over all I can’t believe how quick they have gone and far we have come during a crap journey.
Today hubby went for a check up and am pleased to say the surgeon is more then happy with how hubby is recovering. However did suggest trying a low-fodmap diet as when hubby was describing his bowel habits it may be that he could have irritable bowels, he did suggest some tablets as well but I cant remember their name.
So over all hubby’s recovery is going really well, yes he is still running to the toilet occasionally and still waking me in the night to go toilet ? Ive come quite prone to a cuppa and biscuit at around 4.30am, i then sometimes dose back to sleep as he watches his Netflix….. Which is enough to send me to sleep.
In my first post op blog “ileostomy reversal post op… and going for a pooh!!” Hubby was running to the toilet several times a day and night resulting in sleepless nights and sometimes very early starts to the day. Thank scooby I can say this is still the case but the bowel movements and sleepless nights are starting to settle and play the game. Energy levels are a big thing and can be impacted from crappy bowels not playing the game causing him to to become lethargic, days like this are few but they can be tough to sit back and watch. On a really bad day hubby can be generally ok during the day but come about 6.30pm -7pm he is sat on the lounge struggling to keep his eyes open covered in a blanket as he is cold and basically looking like crap. It’s almost like we have gone backwards several months and he is having treatment again, he is colourless in his face and lifeless its horrible to see him looking like this.
Eight weeks on!!!! Wow how things have changed……..We are still having the sleepless nights and still having the days when we can not be to far from a toilet but these are becoming less and less as the days are going by. First thing in the morning and then sometimes in the evening or middle of the night is when the toilet is usually occupied, I dread to think how much toilet roll he has gone through since being ill. I for some stupid reason thought that after the tumour was removed then we would not go through so much toilet roll….. OMG how bloody wrong was I, if we had shares in the stuff we would be millionaires and that’s no joke!!!!!! We have even resulted to wet toilet wipes as well as toilet roll after the amount of time he spent in the toilet the first few days, what the hell people must have been thinking when I walked out the shop with a pack of 18 toilets rolls and 7 packs of wet toilet wipes!!!! Jokes aside though the past few weeks we have shared moments as a family with no thoughts of cancer or talking about pooh and its been amazing. We have been to the beech and spent an hour or so in the sea with the kids and we have not been left as hubby has had to run to the toilet, which has given us all so much motivation. We went out for dinner for hubbys birthday and even spent Father’s Day afternoon with hubby’s dad which was brill, watching hubby eat and not run to the toilet within a matter of minutes has been amazing. Before doing these journeys though we do have to access the journey and take into consideration the length of the journey and if there is a toilet on route, it also depends on hubby if he has the strength or not as more often then not he has been on the toilet for part of the morning.
At the beginning obviously hubby had no energy or very little, its going to take a long time for his strength to be like it was before this journey but he is improving daily when I sit and think how far he has come its amazing. He is even able to do a short walk after eating with no running to the toilet which is great, he has even been able to go for a ride on his bike and pop to a football meeting. ? We still have the odd evening that he may fall asleep on the sofa but they are becoming fewer, Until probably quite recently this was hard for me to see and except, I could not get round the fact that he was always tired even after his op and why he was falling asleep by say 7.30 – 8pm. I now sit there and it brings tears to my eyes and a little smile, thinking about everything he has achieved that day and what he has been through this past year. My brave solider, my sole mate has beat cancer and I’m so proud and honoured to be his wife even though he drives me up the wall and sometimes I could really loose it with him. This journey has been tough but time is a healer and as a family we will continue to be proud and fight strong.
