My Mum just had an anterior resection of a 50mm tumour in her rectum. The surgery was 10 hours (we had expected 4) and a stoma fitted (as expected). She was very unwell and developed an ileus (her bowel stopped working). Her operation was also on a Friday so she had very poor care over the weekend and nothing was picked up until the Monday when the regular staff were back in. She had to have a tube down her nose to drain her stomach for 2 days. She was discharged the following Thursday although I felt they wanted the bed back more than she was well enough to go home. Since being home she's not really been able to leave bed, she was a very active 67 year old before and did 16-20k steps a day. When she stands up her heart rate soars to 130. She's been to the GP and there is seemingly no issue. She's now developed severe pelvic pain and vomited again yesterday (2 weeks and four days post op). The skin around her stoma is also very raw and sore too but apparently normal. It feels as if she will never get better. She is now very miserable, her face is sallow and grey and she can't enjoy any food. She's always been fussy and there is likely some psychological block with food and I'm sure this is impacting her recovery but I'm also concerned about her heart rate, inability to move/stand/walk, and now the pelvic pain and vomiting. Will it ever improve? She's been to the GP twice, we had a stoma nurse appointment, recovery stopped calling after four days (and she was no better then and we've never seen or heard from the surgeon since the operation. I wake up worrying she'll have died in her sleep. She said she's wondering if it was even worth having the surgery as she felt well beforehand (we would never have known she had cancer). She knows that isn't true but I think she's starting to think she won't recover from this and that this is the end for her when she was otherwise well. I'd love some information on whether this is normal, if anyone else experienced such a bad recovery, if she'll ever feel ok again.... they've told us today that they might offer her chemo as preventative (it hasn't spread) but I'm worried she'll say she can't face it. Thanks in advance.
