• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Post surgery recovery

K

Kimbag73

Member
Messages
17
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I had emergency surgery for a small bowel obstruction about 6 weeks ago; full cut open not keyhole surgery. I have had terrible trouble with wound healing ever since including infection and over granulation. It is really getting me down. I am trying really hard to keep my sugars in target and mostly succeeding but my GP practice and hospital seem to never consider that I am diabetic or talk to me about that being a factor in the healing process. I just wondered if anyone else has had issues after surgery and has any advice about what I can do to help my own recovery. I am so fed up of being in pain and visiting the nurse for daily dressing changes when as soon as one bit of the wound heals another part reopens.


Kim x
 
There's not much you can do apart from trying to keep your bg levels steady and within range. I don't know what they have suggested diet wise but making sure you get plenty of vitamins from fruit & vegetables will also help in the healing process, other than that just try and manage the pain as best as you can taking pain relief, if the wounds continue to reopen then I would ask your Dr to refer you back over to the consultant who did the operation.
 
I assume you have increased your insulin as blood sugar will normally rise due to surgery and infections. I had surgery recently and had to move my Basal up by around 30% for a few weeks. I'm surprised the GP and hospital didn't discuss this with you as surgery and diabetes don't go well together. Keeping blood sugar near normal is essential to speed up clearing any infection.
 
Kimbag73 said:
I had emergency surgery for a small bowel obstruction about 6 weeks ago; full cut open not keyhole surgery. I have had terrible trouble with wound healing ever since including infection and over granulation. It is really getting me down. I am trying really hard to keep my sugars in target and mostly succeeding but my GP practice and hospital seem to never consider that I am diabetic or talk to me about that being a factor in the healing process. I just wondered if anyone else has had issues after surgery and has any advice about what I can do to help my own recovery. I am so fed up of being in pain and visiting the nurse for daily dressing changes when as soon as one bit of the wound heals another part reopens.


Kim x
Click to expand...

I always use Aloe Vera capsules, available from Health Food Stores after an operation. I find that they help me recover quicker, and one or two surgeons have been surprised at the speed my operation wound has healed, and at how well. I have always been open and told them, whilst they might not agree, I am convinced that it is down to the Aloe Vera capsules.
 
elaineadams said:
I always use Aloe Vera capsules, available from Health Food Stores after an operation. I find that they help me recover quicker, and one or two surgeons have been surprised at the speed my operation wound has healed, and at how well. I have always been open and told them, whilst they might not agree, I am convinced that it is down to the Aloe Vera capsules.
Click to expand...
 
Kimbag73 said:
I had emergency surgery for a small bowel obstruction about 6 weeks ago; full cut open not keyhole surgery. I have had terrible trouble with wound healing ever since including infection and over granulation. It is really getting me down. I am trying really hard to keep my sugars in target and mostly succeeding but my GP practice and hospital seem to never consider that I am diabetic or talk to me about that being a factor in the healing process. I just wondered if anyone else has had issues after surgery and has any advice about what I can do to help my own recovery. I am so fed up of being in pain and visiting the nurse for daily dressing changes when as soon as one bit of the wound heals another part reopens. Kim x
Click to expand...
 
Hi I had radical bowel surgery 37 years ago and in those days the whole of the large bowel was removed leaving me to struggle with an ileostomy bag. (No longer done like that these days) The outcome of this is that I have existed for years on a maintenance dose of steroids and have developed steroidal induced diabetes and am now on insulin.. But I manage OK the only problem is that I cannot digest fruit and vegetables so try to get smoothies or juice instead.I have been told that the best way to beat hypos is to increase carbs at each meal - I do this by adding maybe 1 or 2 slices of bread. The outcome is I have a steady HBA1C and my sugars settle around 7.00. I found the way to cope was to keep a food diary and take it to the hospital dietician. I keep in constant touch with the diabetic unit You have to be persistent to get help. Re the wound giving pain go back to the surgeon and ask what to do No one should have to put up with that. If the wound is sore ask about Karaya powder. Good luck, take control, you can do it.
 
Kimbag73 said:
I had emergency surgery for a small bowel obstruction about 6 weeks ago; full cut open not keyhole surgery. I have had terrible trouble with wound healing ever since including infection and over granulation. It is really getting me down. I am trying really hard to keep my sugars in target and mostly succeeding but my GP practice and hospital seem to never consider that I am diabetic or talk to me about that being a factor in the healing process. I just wondered if anyone else has had issues after surgery and has any advice about what I can do to help my own recovery. I am so fed up of being in pain and visiting the nurse for daily dressing changes when as soon as one bit of the wound heals another part reopens.


Kim x
Click to expand...

ALERT GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF WOUND.
@Kimbag73
I had an abdominal operation involving incision 14ins down the centre of my body in January. It involved bowel being trapped.

I understand your distress at the slow healing, mine took over ten weeks. I thought it would never be right. If there is infection in the wound it will take ages. I also had a seroma, ( a large lump which appeared under the skin about a week after surgery) which is a collection of lymph like fluid, under part of the wound that had healed, but it kept leaking through the lower part of the wound, preventing it healing, and opening it up . The only thing that helped was tight binding of the wound on top of the clean sterile dressing. This was with a pressure pad, then very tight bandage, with close fitting girdle on top. I even bound a warm hot water bottle to the wound. One doctor suggested it needed to be drained by inserting a needle to draw off fluid. A second opinion was that it should not have a needle inserted as this could introduce infection into the abdominal cavity, whereas the infection had only been surface of the wound. Thankfully I did not have the needle aspiration. With the pressure pad it healed quickly enough after a few days. Check with your doc if pressure binding would be right for you.

If you are keeping blood glucose well managed, the only other thing I can suggest is drink plenty of water and get plenty of protein for healing. Rest plenty, but move about a bit too.

Hope this has been of use, and that you start to feel better soon.
 
Back
Top