personal questions

[maddie86]

this is a personal question but my partner had major bowel surgery and now wears a colostomy.. he cant seem to achieve an errection.. im worried because i knw ut may be permenant damage.. does anyone know anything about this or how much time it takes to work? i read that this is usually temporary but id appriciate info frm others...

[Sailor]

Hi Maddie I can't talk about erectile dysfunction followoing bowle cancer surgery, but I can, as can many others, talk about it following prostate cancer treatment. What they have found is that it is important to get things happening normally, or at least to mimic what normally happens. Men normally have erections overnight and what this does is to keep blood flushing through the organ. Preventing blood pooling and also preventing atrophy. So following medical treatment it is important to mimic this until nature takes over again. Hence in terms of what is called penile rehabilitation (Google it and look at websites linked to major cancer hospitals) the use of agents such as Viagra or Levitra, or the injections, are recommended. The probelm is that the previous government, took these off the Pahrmaceutical benefits scheme. So talk to your GP and see if there are any clincal trials that are using these agents that your partner can get onto so that it is not a huge out of pocket expense. The old adage 'use it or lose it' applies. Once atrophy sets in rehabilitation is more difficult. Cheers Sailor

[purpleangels]

Hey Maddie! Yes...a tricky one.....after my husband's peritonectomy he had trouble getting an erection at first, but then after a while he could get one, but could not maintain it.....then we figured out that upon ejaculation, nothing happened.....curious! So we embarrassedly (is that a word???) asked his surgoen....to which he replied that he probably messed with the nerve endings and cut bits out that would account for that. That is the thing with the human body, nerve endings and nerves, and bits join to other bits and rely on other bits to work properly....so scientific I know.....But.... it is probably worth asking for a detailed report about what exactly they did in the op, it could explain it. We are repeatedly asked how much bowel they took when Bob had his peritonectomy- and all we know is "metres". This is handy to know when dieticians ask you about it, and nutritionists are trying to figure out ways for them to put on weight. My husband has also started to get blockages in his bowel (I would not wish that on my worst enemy!!!!) so he has to be really careful with what he eats. He had a colostomy for six months after his op, and then had it reversed, but another one may be on the cards....it would be so good if they could transplant bowel- foul but so good! PA

[maddie86]

thanks for your replies! is it possible it can come back naturally? ive read that it can be temporary..