I'm really sorry to hear your recovery has not been going too well since you had the polyp removed Mark.

Hopefully some of our members who have been in a similar situation will share their thoughts and advice with you soon but if you'd like to discuss this with one of our cancer nurses, they're available on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday (except bank holidays) between 9a.m - 5p.m.

I really hope you're able to get some answers and things start to improve for you soon.

Kind regards,

Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hello Mark777,

                        reading of your difficulties minded me of my own recovery issues from bowel surgery.l have learnt the hard way that the bowel does not respond kindly to being interfered with and can react in the extreme to being messed with,so nothing in your post does anything to surprise me.The fortunate among us can get a fairly quick recovery,but my own was five years in the making to reach a tolerable point of my "new normal".People underestimate the complex workings of the bowel,and how much disruption is created by removal of pieces of an intricate chain, it takes time for it to work out the adjustments needed to function again.The interaction between all the components at work within the bowel is highly complex balance,between that of tissue,muscle,chemical, and nothing like a cut healing on the outer skin.It does not help that peoples understanding is limited by the lack of discussion on what would be considered a somewhat private matter not up for public debate.

To give you an idea,my continuous diarrhea lasted two years,and l would fire off up to fifteen sittings within 5 minutes of previous,on up to five occaisions daily,with the bowel being so inflamed and bleeding.l finally got medication that helped,but to this day l am on a cvcle of flare ups which thankfully are less violent , more predictable.,and very controllable

l accept that l am an extreme case and most will not suffer to this extent,but it does illustrate that more patience is required for recovery than was first envisaged,and that a recognition that stressing and worrying over it will be like throwing petrol instead of water onto a fire that you are trying to extinguish.

In your case l would assume you would have had an internal investigation to discover the polyp and nothing else was found,so discounting cancer,,colitis,ect, so your existing issue is about allowing the bowel to settle down.My thoughts which must be clear from this post is that four weeks is hardly any time at all in the scheme of things and a little more calm patience will see a developing improvement taking place,

l hope you will see that improvement over the coming months,

                                                                                                    David