Only on soft foods, soup after getting partial colon removed. Still having pain. Suggestions?
Patient: I had 18 inches of my colon removed in August then two weeks later developed abcessess and was hospitalized , they placed a JP drain and I went home on I ve abx. And a PICC line. I am still having a lot of pain and nausea have been hospitalized with this again recently. I am finding that I can now only eat pudding, soup very soft foods, or my pain inreases in my stomach greatly. What could be the problem? My surgeons say there is nothing more they can find. I still feel like there is something wrong. Doctor: Hello!  Thank you for the query.  First of all it would be good to know the reason of the abscess creation. Usually there is no reason for abscess to create during the regular colon removal. Such abscess presence usually means that there is a leakage in the intestinal anastomosis (surgical connection between two parts of intestine previously detached). Such leakage results with stool leakage to the abdominal cavity. Such situation causes inflammatory process inside the abdominal cavity causing adhesions creation and anastomosis narrowing. Both adhesions and narrow anastomosis impedes stool passage and results with symptoms like yours. That is why you should have abdominal CT with oral contrast performed (so called enteroclysis) to see if are there any obstacles. Full blood work with CRP (inflammation marker) should be performed to see if there is no other abscess. If no findings in CT, you may have performed laparoscopy as very often adhesions can not be see in the CT.  Hope this will help. Regards.