Hi Sophilu92,

Welcome to Cancer Chat. I'm sorry to read what your MIL and all of you are going through at the moment, and I can certainly understand you wanting to get as much information as possible.

While I can't help specifically with your questions, my reply here will boost your post so hopefully others with similar experience can reply. If you haven't already, do also browse or search (using the button in the blue bar above) the forum for any other relevant or similar discussions.

I hope you're able to find out more soon.

Wishing you all the best,

Ben

Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi there 

So sorry to hear what your MIL is going through bless her. I don't have any advice personally but my husband and MIL have both had bowel cancer and have permanent stomas & my husband also had the APER surgery. My MIL is 62 and had the surgery 2 years ago. She had part of her bowel removed and a stoma fitted. Her recovery was fairly slow but she had chemo shortly after the operation and is also a diabetic which doesn't help. 2 years on she's doing MUCH better and life with the stoma doesn't faze her at all. The stoma nurses that offer support in hospital and once they are home are fantastic. 
 

My husband is only 35 and was diagnosed in April with a rare form of polyposis and cancer of the rectum. As a result he had his entire large intestine removed and an ileostomy bag (permanent) fitted plus the APER surgery. He had the whole operation in one go and was on the table for just over 9 hours. The recovery has been fairly slow. He was told prior to surgery that the APER would be the main source of pain and the slowest part of recovery and that's definitely been the case. It's very difficult for him to be comfortable sitting/standing/lying down etc all hurts. There are lots of products that can help, special cushions etc and I did lots of reading beforehand of stories of others who had similar surgery to see what had helped them. He's also had fantastic support from the stoma and community nurses and they are always on hand with any concerns. I'm sorry if this was just a big ramble and not much info/answers to your qs! But basically it's massive surgery and a long recovery but the results are worth it, my husband was told the likelihood of the cancer returning without the surgery was very high and that was massively reduced with the surgery so it was a no brainer for us. It's incredibly tough surgery to go through and very hard to see someone you love go through it so I wish you all the very best xx

Thank you so much for your reply!

This helps prepare us for a long recovery as the doctors have told my MIL it is only a 8-12 week recovery time which clearly isn't the case! I had a feeling it was too good to be true.

I'm so sorry to hear your husband is still struggling 6 months later. That cant be easy on either of you! Could I ask if he requires much care? Is he able to do small things at this point in time? 

I wish you both all the best and a speedier recovery

Xxxxx