Rectal Cancer Treatment

My husband has a resection for rectal cancer, on Friday. His doctor wants to make a temporary ileostomy and reconnect it in 6 months. How difficult is it to retrain your colon to function normally. We have heard, it is imposible to be sometimes far from a bathroom anymore. Is this true?

How does your husband think of the ileostomy? It can be very difficult to treat, and can affect your confidence, but it really helps the healing of the wound excision and helps prevent it from becoming infected or break etc. It is possible to have the opposite and you are right in thinking that it may take some time to bowel habits return to normal, "but everyone is different. Dietary advice will be given when it was resected and he will probably often visited by a stoma care specialist nurse to help him learn how to care for his stoma effectively.

This may take several weeks to settle things once the reversal of the ileostomy was performed and a controlled diet can help reduce the frequency of certain foods can aggrevate the bowels, but your husband will come to learn in the time foods are ideal, or should be avoided. Do not expect the worst if bowel habits some people can return to normal in time.

Good luck to you both.

My nephew had the same thing a few years ago. He had no problems thereafter and functions quite normally now. Good luck to you both.

I do not know but I want you and your husbond the best of luck in treating this difficult disease.

IT could be and good luck!