Surgery

Please be aware that this information below can be potentially triggering as we describe various surgeries and procedures in detail.
We would also like to direct your attention towards an existing toolkit to help make a decision on whether you should have an IBD surgery or not.

Common Types of IBD Surgery

COMMON

Types of IBD Surgery

After Surgery

Risk of Complications After Surgery

Risk of Complications After Surgery:
- Blood clots: Blood clots are a worry after surgery due to the state of inactivity that one is usually in after a surgery. Often measures are taken to combat this risk.
  - Compression socks, worn whenever a patient is stationary/in bed
  - Walking around the hospital floor
- Intestinal Obstruction: Also known as a blockage, this complication occurs when there is narrowing of the bowel wall (stricture) from either swelling and the scar tissue. Medication may help reduce swelling, however surgery may be required if this is a recurring problem.
- Ileus: When your intestine doesn’t contract as normal and stool isn’t able to pass through. This can be characterized by nausea, abdominal distension, appetite loss, as well as other symptoms.
- Excessive bleeding: Usually controllable, but if not controlled additionally surgery is often required.
- Gastrointestinal perforation: Caused by numerous other diseases including appendicitis and diverticulitis, a gastrointestinal perforation (GP) is when a hole forms and goes through your stomach, large bowel, or small intestine. This may lead to peritonitis, or the inflammation of your membrane on the abdominal cavity. GP requires immediate medical attention.
- Fistulas: Fistulas are ulcers, sores, that are directly caused by inflammation. They expand and grow which eventually cause a passageway between where the fistula formed and the outside of the body (i.e, anal fistula connection between inside of the rectum and the outside of the rectum).
- Abscess: A small pocket that contains pus and is often painful

Post-Surgery Challenges

Scar Tissue
- Can cause pain in the future due to scar tissue that can form inside muscle and other areas of the body
- Some of the ways that as a patient you can mitigate and breakdown scar tissue is diet and exercise
Medical PTSD (Trigger warning)
- Can happen after medical procedures for a variety of reasons and can affect daily life or interaction with future hospital visits and/or treatments
Inability to absorb nutrients
- Often happens after specific surgeries and with loss of major parts of intestines (i.e B-12 or Iron)
- Specific key parts of the GI tract are used to absorb nutrients (ileum absorbs B-12) and without this part the body is unable to absorb the vitamin orally (as it normally would) so infusions of the vitamins are regularly needed to make up for lack of absorption

Ostomy

An ostomy bag may be used in the case a patient needs multiple surgeries or their colon is removed with no plan of a j-pouch. This prosthetic is a bag which lays on the abdomen and catches output from the stoma, a part of the large or small intestine that sticks out from your abdomen. An ostomy bag is changed every 3-5 days and can only take 15 minutes to change. It is an easy way to allow your colon to heal as no output is passing through. Please find more information as part of our Ostomy Toolkit linked below.

Medical PTSD
(Trigger Warning)

Medical PTSD as a concept is a specific category of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wherein the patient experiences adverse reactions from the treatment of their medical issue that they were/are experiencing. This is important to acknowledge, especially with the increased amount of procedures and appointments done for those with chronic illness. It can present itself anywhere from mild to severe.
Story about invalidation: In December of 2018 when I had my surgery I had a wonderful surgery team and nurse team — all the medical staff was wonderful! There was this one nurse on one night of my stay who completely invalidated me. It made me lose trust in her and if she hadn’t left off that shift I would have asked for a staff turnover. I had a Foley Catheter. Although it is supposed to feel weird coming out and while it is being adjusted, it is not supposed to hurt. But it did for me and I don’t know why. But, in the moment instead of addressing the issue, which was severe discomfort and pain, my nurse told me it is not supposed to hurt and continued. This was a traumatic experience for me. While I was crying I was told this is “not supposed to hurt” while I was clearly in visible pain. Medical consent and explanation of procedures are incredibly important. This should have never happened and doctors and nurses should be able to adjust accordingly for people who don’t react typically to procedures. Trauma can also be experienced in many situations and it is important to be responsive to the needs of patients.
Medical consent is important as I often had no idea what sensations, feelings and areas the procedure would be affecting. I did not know potential aftermaths of surgery and often I was just anticipating pain or discomfort. I could better mentally prepare and have better outcomes in the long term if I knew more about what was going to happen.