I went to see my surgeon yesterday to arrange the excision of my jpouch. The appointment went as expected; I had taken a list of general queries such as expected hospital stay time and what I should expect to wake up with in terms of drains and catheters etc, and nothing came as a surprise.
It was actually my mum mentioning that I ALWAYS end up with an NG tube after surgery that prompted my learning.
You may have heard ileus being referred to in a number of ways, such as bowel paralysis, the bowel falling asleep or paralytic ileus. It simply means that you are unable to pass anything because the intestine is not contracting as it should to move the contents along the intestine to its evacuation point, so instead of going down, it usually comes back up.
Postoperative ileus is a pretty common complication after bowel surgery, but it has happened to me 5 times out of 6, leading to the pretty traumatic insertion of an NG tube and usually about a week of watching bile slide its way down the tube hanging out of my nose. I also appear to have a particularly sensitive throat, so from the second it goes in, I cannot speak without irritating the inside of my throat, gagging and watching the bile flow a little more rapidly. Then, there is the fact I have to stay nil by mouth. I struggle with my weight anyway, so a week without food takes its toll on my already scrawny body. For me, being unable to talk is a nightmare in itself, but the constant retching and watery eyes just add insult to injury, so it’s definitely the most distressing part of any surgery. I always say I’d rather 10 cameras up my arse than one tube down my throat…
It is particularly important to have an NG tube inserted to prevent gagging and the natural way your abdominal muscles respond to this. Having surgery on your abdomen could cause further complications and injury.
Anyway, back to my appointment. My surgeon informed me that pre-op administered Dexamethasone has been effective in preventing/reducing post-op ileus. I looked online to see if any research backed this up and there are studies, but not specific to bowel surgery. I will be requesting it anyway, what harm can it do?!
Patient Advocacy 
Full-body Ileus is sheer torture. I am one who cannot have any steroid near me ever again. I believe NG tubes worsen the situation by starving the body and acid churning when the body wants to know what is going on and is trying to process out all of the post-operative medications that come through the intestinal system. Ileus can also be an indication of infection common in hospitals post-operative. You may be particularly sensitive and I hope this time especially, you do not have an NG Tube as you described the torture of it perfectly. It is only my opinion but I think nasogastric tubes do nothing for the ileus and actually slow down healing physically and certainly emotionally.
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PS: again only my opinion and experience personally, but the times I have had Ileus, the NG Tube was epic fail because my body was starving to digest something and actually made the bile worse because IV hydration was not enough to flush the body when nothing goes through the mouth. On the humerus side, I argued with the head of anesthesia who was called specially to place an NG tube in me when I had said I can only do it under sedation. He had a whole gaggle of students and nursing staff to show me who was in charge. He got to a certain point of insertion with the NG Tube. This 95 pound woman acted like a full-size racehorse in panic! The nurse exclaimed that my eyes were headed towards the Panic Zone. Anesthesiologist proceeded I'm two seconds later, I went full panic mode and yanked the tube out of his hands and out of my body. I managed to hose everybody within a 2-foot range of projectile. Satisfied that I'd won that round I only reply was, “toldya!” Before fainting.
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[…] predict when it would wake up. No one communicated with me further than that or explained what post-op ileus […]
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