Edit: I wrote the below section last night. I had my pre admissions testing this morning and discovered the clinic lost my COVID test from Monday. As such, I had to have another one today. Yuck.

I have more details now on Thursday’s surgery. If all goes well, there will be no new incision. They will instead free my small intestine from where it exits my abdomen, resect the intestine down to where the fistula is, and then using the same stoma location, attach the new section of intestine to the abdomen. All that means I’ll have the same stoma location, but a new piece of intestine will be the stoma. The location part is great, as it’s a location that works fairly well. The new intestine part of the surgery means I’m in for an annoying 6-8 weeks as things heal. I’ll be back to measuring my stoma every time I have to change my bag. I’ll be more prone to leaks. Hopefully the same bag system I use now will be appropriate for the new stoma. It probably will, but there’s no guarantee.

Surgery itself shouldn’t be too long. The surgical resident I talked to today said I’ll spend more time in pre and post op than I will actually in surgery. Unsurprisingly, I do have to do a bowel prep. This time it’s a combination of magnesium citrate, dulcolax, antibiotics, and potassium. For a good chunk of tomorrow, I’m taking something every hour or two. At least my pre op testing appointment is early enough in the morning that I’ll be well home before I have to start prep. I’m on a liquid diet tomorrow to make the prep easier. It won’t be a particularly pleasant day, but I expected that. Anytime there is surgery done on the bowels, or where there’s a risk of injuring the bowels, doctors prescribe a bowel prep to completely empty the bowels of stool.

I should only be in the hospital a couple days. We’ll just have to wait and see how long it takes for my intestine to wake up and work as it should again. I’m hopeful that if surgery goes as it should that I won’t have a ton of pain. The biggest thing that could derail surgery is how much scar tissue I have. I’ve had two previous open abdominal surgeries so scar tissue is a potential problem. Scar tissue tends to make things stick together and that sticking could make it difficult to pull my intestine out of my current stoma location. If scar tissue were to make things tricky, then if would likely become yet another open surgery and a longer hospital stay.

This will be my third intestinal surgery in under two years. By comparison, this should be an easy surgery. I’m really not worried about this one. Even if it becomes an open surgery, I’ve been there before. I have the scars to prove it.