Surgery Gives Hope for Better Life
Posted on: Tuesday, 19 July 2005, 18:00 CDT
Most people with ulcerative colitis, a disease that strikes the large intestine, can control their disease with medications.
But for some, surgical removal of the large intestine, or colon, is the only way to end the horrendous pain and other symptoms.
It used to be that people who underwent that surgery had to endure a permanent ileostomy, which involves wearing a bag in which waste from the small intestine is deposited.
Since the mid-1980s, doctors have been performing an operation that hooks the small intestine to the anal muscle, allowing for almost normal bowel movements.
Before Dr. Bill Rudolph, a board-certified colon and rectal surgeon, arrived in Colorado Springs last year, local colitis patients commonly were referred to Denver or elsewhere for the operation.
Not having to endure the indignity of a bag is particularly important to young people, who are more concerned about body image, Rudolph says. Colitis is primarily a young person's disease, commonly striking between ages 15 and 30.
Corticosteroids such as prednisone typically are used to send colitis into remission, says Dr. Scot Lewey, a Springs gastroenterologist. Antiinflammatory medications help keep patients in remission. But they don't help everyone. And to keep the condition at bay, some patients must remain on the steroid treatment, which isn't recommended for long-term use because of side effects.
"For those," Lewey says, "surgery kind of becomes the only good option."
April Reish, 29, was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis shortly before her 26th birthday.
"I just woke up sick one day and thought I had the flu, but it never went away," she says.
It began with fatigue and diarrhea and progressed to include bleeding and severe pain. She was put on prednisone, but symptoms persisted.
"I had to stop teaching because I couldn't just leave my first- graders to use the bathroom," the Colorado Springs woman says.
Rudolph operated on Reish in June. With the diseased colon removed, "I felt better right away, even when I was in the hospital recovering from the surgery," she says.
The surgery is done in two phases; the second is set for September.
"My only regret," Reish says, "is that I wish I had done the surgery a long time ago."
Source: Gazette, The; Colorado Springs, Colo.
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