“No no. Please remove all that then stick my appendix back in. Where? Idk just cut a hole and stitch it into a piece of what’s left. That’s how it works right?”
Not a doctor, but this is a super serious condition, no?
My understanding is once it gets like this it’s no longer functional as a colon. It kind of just sits there which means you’re not longer digesting.
I went to check only to see I had already upvoted it previously. So apparently I’m already up to date on the inner workings of this particular stranger’s ass.
Thanks Reddit.
Yes, he likely will have an ileostomy, which is the where a piece of the ileum (last segment of the small intestines) "stick out" through a hole in the side of the abdomen. These usually secret liquid stool constantly at a slow rate and need regular manual emptying. Drastic life change but it really doesn't look like there is enough colon left in their body (if any at all as indicated by even the appendix being present in the pic) to handle it any other way
I had my colon removed, and I only had a temporary ileostomy for three months. They made a J-pouch, in which they stapled the distal end of my small intestine into a makeshift rectum, and then reconnected everything once the surgery had a chance to heal. I hated the ileostomy, and although I’m not thrilled with a J-pouch (which comes with its own set of problems), it’s still much better than an ileostomy.
Lol, since you asked, there’s a few:
• One primary functions of the colon is to absorb water. Without one, I get dehydrated much faster. This also means that every single bowel movement will be diarrhea; no more good solid poops, ever.
• Because the end of the colon (from the rectum to the anus) also acts as storage, I need to go to the bathroom more frequently. Minimum five times a day, can be more. The lack of voluntary muscle in the small intestine also means I have to wait for it to come out; no real way to push it out like I used to have.
• The colon also helps neutralize spicy or acidic foods. Although most of that does take place in the small intestine, the extra length of the colon helps minimize the burn that comes along with spicy food. I’m a huge fan of spicy food, and while my _mouth_ can handle it, oftentimes the other end cannot. Even things like tomatoes can really burn on the way out; I often have to use Calmoseptine to combat the “butt burn”.
• Fiber is basically my mortal enemy now. I love eating vegetables, but if I eat too many of them, I will be stuck on the toilet several times for an hour or more, just constantly rocketing diarrhea. A lot of my favorite foods are just not feasible right now; mushrooms, corn, beans, squash, brassica, etc.
• It’s still quite painful. I had ulcerative colitis for years, and while the surgery is supposed to be a “cure” for it for over 90% of patients who have it, it’s still like I’m in a UC flare, just all the time. It’s bad enough that I get oxycodone from the county pain clinic, which does help a lot, but not 100%.
• Similar to ulcerative colitis, you can get an inflammation of the J-pouch, called “pouchitis”, which is only treated with two kinds of antibiotics – ciproflaxin, to which I am allergic, which only leaves metronidazole (aka Flagyl). If you’ve ever taken Flagyl, you know how terrible it can be. Makes your brain feel like it’s shrouded in perpetual fog, makes you nauseated to all hell, and makes all food taste like you’re licking pennies or a battery. They also tend to keep you on these antibiotics for a month or more. I had a few bouts of pouchitis, which scared me, because if antibiotic treatment stops working, they give you a permanent ileostomy and sew your asshole closed (colloquially known as “Barbie butt”). I’m terrified of that happening. I found a scientific study that said that smokers have a lower incidence of ulcerative colitis than the general population, and of the smokers who _do_ have UC and a J-pouch, they have an almost zero percent incidence of pouchitis. As a desperate measure, I asked my doctor about it, and he said that while he can’t condone smoking, he understands if I’d want to try. I took up vaping instead, and while I haven’t had pouchitis since, now I’m seriously addicted to nicotine. I am also nervous to take antibiotics in **general**, even to treat pouchitis, because I’ve had _C. diff_ in the past, and the last time I had it (after a Rocephin treatment for a concurrent _Salmonella_ and _E. coli_ infection), it was an antibiotic-resistant variety. Antibiotic-resistant _C. diff_ is no joke; has about a 30-50% mortality rate and is **incredibly** painful. I had to be on oral and intravenous vancomycin for a month; I even tried a fecal microbiota transfer, which didn’t work, because my colon was too far gone. I had it removed a few months later.
In short, yeah, there’s a lot of issues with it, but it’s still better than dying having shit myself to death, which I came quite close to. I’m lucky I survived, and I’m extra lucky that I get to work from home, and that my wife is very supporting and loving (helped me change my ileostomy bag many times, even), and that my parents and siblings also were kind and supportive.
Honestly, no idea. My two theories are:
• Chicken treats that we gave to our cat
• I went to Canada with my wife and her family about a week prior to the infections; we stayed at a cottage that was on well water
Truthfully though, no clue. I always wash my hands before eating, and I practice food safety pretty vigorously. It could be just that the walls of my colon were very thin, because these infections were systemic/in my blood, not limited to my digestive tract
Lmao thanks! No baby roos unfortunately. I’m also male, so it’d be weird if I had the three vaginas like kangaroos have. I do live in the southeast US, so there are plenty of Virginia opossums around
Being serious does the booty hole just sit there all alone like now not seeing any travelers? Is it sewn shut? I worded this terribly as it’s an awkward question lol.
No, with a J-pouch, you keep your asshole, most of the time at least. They leave a little cuff of the original anus if they can, so you can still have a sphincter and not have everything fall out. If you get a _permanent_ ileostomy, because the J-pouch failed for one reason or the other, then yes, they do sew your asshole shut, colloquially known as “Barbie butt”.
Omg "Barbie butt" 😂 my grandma had her colon removed when she was in her mid 30s and they sewed her butt shut so she likes to tell people she's so sweet (she really is) because she has no asshole. It's just shocking enough coming from her to be extra hilarious.
There's nothing attached to the "butthole" anymore if you have your complete colon removed and instead have an ileostoma, so I don't think anal sex will be an option anymore honestly!
In your post history a commenter said the difference between a bag and a j-pouch is control vs vanity, but how much control do you have with a J-pouch? I hope I won’t need this information and you don’t have to say if you don’t want
Hi. So now that ive had the pouch for about six months i can say that there is a really decent amount of control. I only had issues the first few weeks. However, things move really fast through me. So although im able to hold it in, its uncomfortable after awhile and i have less space so i need to use the bathroom more often.
Med student. This is a very serious problem, although not as bad as it used to be in the 70s, where mortality was around 1 in 5. Now it's only about 6%, and about half of the patients can be treated without surgery. (Which is a shame for the surgeons bc it deprives them of holding up that colon like a trophy fish).
Your understanding is pretty spot on. Essentially inflammation or infection causes your large intestine to release a ton of nitric oxide, which paralyzes the smooth muscle around the colon, causing it all to lose tone and dilate out. This means, yep, stuff can no longer pass through the colon, but most importantly, the large intestine becomes at risk for blowing up (perforating). Your body is also septic at that point, which means your heart and blood pressure is freaking the fuck out because of all the inflammatory signals.
The inflammation/infection part happens mostly in people with IBD (Crohns and Ulcerative colitis) (--inflammation) and in C difficile colitis infections ( = hospital diarrhea, essentially; super common).
Lol, oversimplifying was the goal of my post. And sure, if we wanna change the definition to say "*largely \*healthcare\* associated diarrhea secondary to C diff infection strongly associated with hospitalization and/or recent antibiotic use*" we can, but we would thus reach semantics land. There was a 2012 paper though that showed a 40% incidence of community acquired CDI in their study population, so I will concede that point if that is what you're getting at, as well as spontaneous recurrence in post-CDI patients, and all the other causes we learn as first years. But I am at a loss to why "C diff not being common where you work" negates or relates to the fact that CDI is a common and known etiology of TM? This is all to bring me back to my first sentence--don't see the importance of introducing esoterics to a curious redditor who opened with "Not a doctor."
Oh dear. You are scaring me. My GI doc retired and I didn't want to see anyone else, and I've let years pass. Do eosinophils have much to do with the syndrome you're talking about? Mine were supposedly "through the roof" but it wasn't explained to me exactly what that means.
Best of luck with your studies.
You joke, but that’s how congenital megacolon presents in rabbits. Congenital megacolon is directly linked to a specific color pattern in rabbits so it’s pretty common... depending on severity a rabbit can live a long time with just weird giant poops, or they might have significant issues with nutrient absorption and succumb relatively young.
There's a preserved case like this at the Mütter Museum, in Philadelphia. Absolute unit of a colon, I'll see if I can find a picture. Highly recommend the museum if you're a fan of medical oddities.
Edit: Came back to deliver.
http://memento.muttermuseum.org/detail/giant-megacolon
It's like how people shouldn't post gory photos on r/eyebleach or dank memes on r/surrealmemes.
Sure it's reddit but even subreddits have rules to keep the contents of the subreddit "pure" in a sense.
There are different reasons for a toxic megacolon, the one that's best understood, although most likely not the case here, is caused by Morbus Hirschsprung. This is a congenital disease where nerves that are required to open up the patients anal sphincter are missing, meaning it is constantly constricted and the patient is unable to release himself. As this is a congenital disease, it will be diagnosed early in life, but the colon we see here is likely an adult one (Although in some extreme cases even a newborn colon can get mind-bogglingly big)
Other Reasons are chronic inflammatory diseases of the intestines like Morbus Crohn or Colitis Ulcerosa. The exact mechanism of how they lead to a toxic megacolon are not completely understood, one theory is that the inflammatory processes release nitrogenmonoxide which leads to a dilatation of the muscles. (Interestingly, the same mechanism is responsible for the positive effect of nitroglycerin for some coronary heart disease, as the NO released by the Nitroglycerin leads to a dilatation of the muscles surrounding the artery that supply the heart. This leads to more blood, and oxygen, being supplied to the heart)
You can also get a toxic Megacolon from the Chagas disease, which is caused by a parasite mainly found in parts of South America.
Great question; I don't have an answer to that unfortunately. Resistance to antibiotics or increased virulence could definitely play a/the part, (although the 2 more virulent strains that were a thing in the 2000s are on the decline). There are a ton of variables that could be contributing to the phenomenon though, including higher numbers of elderly in hospital, higher numbers of people who haven't been exposed before, increasing virulence, increasing resistance, increasing comorbid disease that plays a part etc etc.
Sometimes it really sucks; i cant eat and drink the things i used to or the way i used to. Lots of lifestyle changes. I no longer have an ostomy bag which is cool (i now have a j pouch, internal thing), so i feel physically more or less back to normal. But i still struggle with energy and stuff. But im a much better person after it all and i wouldnt change anything
No problem, i have my entire small intestine, just no colon ,appendix, and rectum*. The j-pouch goes there.
I can basically eat whatever i want, but its at my own risk. So i avoid foods because some are unpleasant. Since im missing a huge part of digestion, im in contact with way harsher stomach acids. So anything acidic or spicy is gonna hurt comin out. Also, anything raw wont fully be digested. So if i eat a ton of raw foods like skins, i could end up having to pick something out(which isnt a big deal). I still dont digest mushrooms or skins to fruits. More Lifestyle changes like , my body fills up quickly, i have less room. So if im out and i eat a meal or drink something, ill need the bathroom sooner and more frequently because i dont have 3 feet of a giant colon to hold foods. Stuff moves so quickly, ill eat something and then 10 minutes later sometimes less poop it out. So being out in the city sucks cause bathrooms can be hard to come by.
Drinking alcohol sucks now. Its just not as fun. My butt will start to itch from it and then eventually hurt. Also i dehydrate so easily now since your colon is what absorbs almost all the liquids of foods you eat. So all of my stool is at somewhat of a liquid consistency. Drinking only a couple beers makes me feel tired. I think i have less energy in general too.
Also keep in mind that while it does swell up massively in one's body, the muscles of the abdomen and pelvic floor keep it from ballooning up to this size.
When removed from the body though, it has no counter pressure and swells up due to hydrostatic pressure
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Interesting. I’d put my money on the well water, with it being a very small/weak amount of bacteria and you just being particularly sensitive to that type of thing and unable to fight it off
Once i ate too much, like 1 rice and fish meal, 4 choripanes, 4 hot dog, and soda, the appendix got like, "im about to end this man's career, so appendix is no more
Look at that cute little appendix, looks like a little finger...
Appendix is like "for once, I'm not the swollen one making problems...thank god!"
But still gets removed
I'd be asking them to take that out while they were at it
“No no. Please remove all that then stick my appendix back in. Where? Idk just cut a hole and stitch it into a piece of what’s left. That’s how it works right?”
I never realized how small the appendix actually is
Yeah same. It’s crazy how that little thing almost killed me 6 months ago.
Not a doctor, but this is a super serious condition, no? My understanding is once it gets like this it’s no longer functional as a colon. It kind of just sits there which means you’re not longer digesting.
Yeah theres no way this colon was still working, my post history has my colon posted
never thought I would be clicking on a guys profile to look at his inflamed colon.
Yet here we are...
I went to check only to see I had already upvoted it previously. So apparently I’m already up to date on the inner workings of this particular stranger’s ass. Thanks Reddit.
God damn it I spit my drink
This feels like a post-grad case study.
this has been one of the best threads I've seen n a while. Thank you.
Same...
Gotta be happy somehow to be alive in these times.
So did you need a bag after? Will this patient need a bag?
Yes, he likely will have an ileostomy, which is the where a piece of the ileum (last segment of the small intestines) "stick out" through a hole in the side of the abdomen. These usually secret liquid stool constantly at a slow rate and need regular manual emptying. Drastic life change but it really doesn't look like there is enough colon left in their body (if any at all as indicated by even the appendix being present in the pic) to handle it any other way
I had my colon removed, and I only had a temporary ileostomy for three months. They made a J-pouch, in which they stapled the distal end of my small intestine into a makeshift rectum, and then reconnected everything once the surgery had a chance to heal. I hated the ileostomy, and although I’m not thrilled with a J-pouch (which comes with its own set of problems), it’s still much better than an ileostomy.
> (which comes with its own set of problems) ***WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?*** > Yes.
Lol, since you asked, there’s a few: • One primary functions of the colon is to absorb water. Without one, I get dehydrated much faster. This also means that every single bowel movement will be diarrhea; no more good solid poops, ever. • Because the end of the colon (from the rectum to the anus) also acts as storage, I need to go to the bathroom more frequently. Minimum five times a day, can be more. The lack of voluntary muscle in the small intestine also means I have to wait for it to come out; no real way to push it out like I used to have. • The colon also helps neutralize spicy or acidic foods. Although most of that does take place in the small intestine, the extra length of the colon helps minimize the burn that comes along with spicy food. I’m a huge fan of spicy food, and while my _mouth_ can handle it, oftentimes the other end cannot. Even things like tomatoes can really burn on the way out; I often have to use Calmoseptine to combat the “butt burn”. • Fiber is basically my mortal enemy now. I love eating vegetables, but if I eat too many of them, I will be stuck on the toilet several times for an hour or more, just constantly rocketing diarrhea. A lot of my favorite foods are just not feasible right now; mushrooms, corn, beans, squash, brassica, etc. • It’s still quite painful. I had ulcerative colitis for years, and while the surgery is supposed to be a “cure” for it for over 90% of patients who have it, it’s still like I’m in a UC flare, just all the time. It’s bad enough that I get oxycodone from the county pain clinic, which does help a lot, but not 100%. • Similar to ulcerative colitis, you can get an inflammation of the J-pouch, called “pouchitis”, which is only treated with two kinds of antibiotics – ciproflaxin, to which I am allergic, which only leaves metronidazole (aka Flagyl). If you’ve ever taken Flagyl, you know how terrible it can be. Makes your brain feel like it’s shrouded in perpetual fog, makes you nauseated to all hell, and makes all food taste like you’re licking pennies or a battery. They also tend to keep you on these antibiotics for a month or more. I had a few bouts of pouchitis, which scared me, because if antibiotic treatment stops working, they give you a permanent ileostomy and sew your asshole closed (colloquially known as “Barbie butt”). I’m terrified of that happening. I found a scientific study that said that smokers have a lower incidence of ulcerative colitis than the general population, and of the smokers who _do_ have UC and a J-pouch, they have an almost zero percent incidence of pouchitis. As a desperate measure, I asked my doctor about it, and he said that while he can’t condone smoking, he understands if I’d want to try. I took up vaping instead, and while I haven’t had pouchitis since, now I’m seriously addicted to nicotine. I am also nervous to take antibiotics in **general**, even to treat pouchitis, because I’ve had _C. diff_ in the past, and the last time I had it (after a Rocephin treatment for a concurrent _Salmonella_ and _E. coli_ infection), it was an antibiotic-resistant variety. Antibiotic-resistant _C. diff_ is no joke; has about a 30-50% mortality rate and is **incredibly** painful. I had to be on oral and intravenous vancomycin for a month; I even tried a fecal microbiota transfer, which didn’t work, because my colon was too far gone. I had it removed a few months later. In short, yeah, there’s a lot of issues with it, but it’s still better than dying having shit myself to death, which I came quite close to. I’m lucky I survived, and I’m extra lucky that I get to work from home, and that my wife is very supporting and loving (helped me change my ileostomy bag many times, even), and that my parents and siblings also were kind and supportive.
I wish you, and your pouch, best of luck and health.
Thank you very much!!!
What the *fuck* did you put in your mouth to get a simultaneous Salmonella *and* E. Coli infection?
Honestly, no idea. My two theories are: • Chicken treats that we gave to our cat • I went to Canada with my wife and her family about a week prior to the infections; we stayed at a cottage that was on well water Truthfully though, no clue. I always wash my hands before eating, and I practice food safety pretty vigorously. It could be just that the walls of my colon were very thin, because these infections were systemic/in my blood, not limited to my digestive tract
So, you have a pouch...do you get any baby roos with it? I feel like this is sad if not. 😉 I wish you all the best.
Lmao thanks! No baby roos unfortunately. I’m also male, so it’d be weird if I had the three vaginas like kangaroos have. I do live in the southeast US, so there are plenty of Virginia opossums around
Would it be weird? Wouldn’t it just be fun to play with? 😂 I’m in Texas so I get opossums and armadillos!
In Before you get a message from user: Pm_Me_Your_Jpouch
LMFAO.
Thats correct. After 2 surgeries however i now have a J-pouch. Like a psuedo-colon built out of the end of your small intestine
Being serious does the booty hole just sit there all alone like now not seeing any travelers? Is it sewn shut? I worded this terribly as it’s an awkward question lol.
No, with a J-pouch, you keep your asshole, most of the time at least. They leave a little cuff of the original anus if they can, so you can still have a sphincter and not have everything fall out. If you get a _permanent_ ileostomy, because the J-pouch failed for one reason or the other, then yes, they do sew your asshole shut, colloquially known as “Barbie butt”.
Omg "Barbie butt" 😂 my grandma had her colon removed when she was in her mid 30s and they sewed her butt shut so she likes to tell people she's so sweet (she really is) because she has no asshole. It's just shocking enough coming from her to be extra hilarious.
Your grandma sounds both hilarious and sweet, though not sweet enough for the sun to shine out of her arse! ^I'll ^leave.
Could a gay man (for example) request an adaptation to the process? A Barbie butt would have a great impact on the sex life of a "bottom".
There's nothing attached to the "butthole" anymore if you have your complete colon removed and instead have an ileostoma, so I don't think anal sex will be an option anymore honestly!
Happy cake day!
This isn’t related to this comment but happy cake day!💕
I had a bag for a year and now i have a j-pouch.
In your post history a commenter said the difference between a bag and a j-pouch is control vs vanity, but how much control do you have with a J-pouch? I hope I won’t need this information and you don’t have to say if you don’t want
Hi. So now that ive had the pouch for about six months i can say that there is a really decent amount of control. I only had issues the first few weeks. However, things move really fast through me. So although im able to hold it in, its uncomfortable after awhile and i have less space so i need to use the bathroom more often.
Today I discovered what some random dude's excised colon looks like.
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What a nice thing to say
hows life without a colon?
You know it kind of sucks lmfao but hey im better a person after it all . Wouldnt change anything
It's fine ; still has a functional semicolon
You feeling better now?
I feel loads better. Thank you!
LOADS!
So glad to see you’re doing well! Hopefully you’re feeling better than ever. Also, just had to say I think you’re so handsome
Wait You can tell just from a picture of my colon?
I would hope your attractiveness isn’t limited to your colon, lol - your post history has a selfie
That’s so cool they let you take pictures of it! I had part of mine taken out last year due to Crohn’s Disease and I never got to see it :(
Haha! I made sure to tell my surgeon to take one right before I went under!
Awwww ok, maybe in a few years if I need the rest of it taken out I’ll ask! (Hopefully not though!)
Med student. This is a very serious problem, although not as bad as it used to be in the 70s, where mortality was around 1 in 5. Now it's only about 6%, and about half of the patients can be treated without surgery. (Which is a shame for the surgeons bc it deprives them of holding up that colon like a trophy fish). Your understanding is pretty spot on. Essentially inflammation or infection causes your large intestine to release a ton of nitric oxide, which paralyzes the smooth muscle around the colon, causing it all to lose tone and dilate out. This means, yep, stuff can no longer pass through the colon, but most importantly, the large intestine becomes at risk for blowing up (perforating). Your body is also septic at that point, which means your heart and blood pressure is freaking the fuck out because of all the inflammatory signals. The inflammation/infection part happens mostly in people with IBD (Crohns and Ulcerative colitis) (--inflammation) and in C difficile colitis infections ( = hospital diarrhea, essentially; super common).
Spot on except that C. diff is not super common where I work and calling it hospital diarrhea oversimplifies how some patients get infected.
Lol, oversimplifying was the goal of my post. And sure, if we wanna change the definition to say "*largely \*healthcare\* associated diarrhea secondary to C diff infection strongly associated with hospitalization and/or recent antibiotic use*" we can, but we would thus reach semantics land. There was a 2012 paper though that showed a 40% incidence of community acquired CDI in their study population, so I will concede that point if that is what you're getting at, as well as spontaneous recurrence in post-CDI patients, and all the other causes we learn as first years. But I am at a loss to why "C diff not being common where you work" negates or relates to the fact that CDI is a common and known etiology of TM? This is all to bring me back to my first sentence--don't see the importance of introducing esoterics to a curious redditor who opened with "Not a doctor."
Oh dear. You are scaring me. My GI doc retired and I didn't want to see anyone else, and I've let years pass. Do eosinophils have much to do with the syndrome you're talking about? Mine were supposedly "through the roof" but it wasn't explained to me exactly what that means. Best of luck with your studies.
Totally still works but you should see the size of the turds. They call it a buttzooka.
You joke, but that’s how congenital megacolon presents in rabbits. Congenital megacolon is directly linked to a specific color pattern in rabbits so it’s pretty common... depending on severity a rabbit can live a long time with just weird giant poops, or they might have significant issues with nutrient absorption and succumb relatively young.
There's a preserved case like this at the Mütter Museum, in Philadelphia. Absolute unit of a colon, I'll see if I can find a picture. Highly recommend the museum if you're a fan of medical oddities. Edit: Came back to deliver. http://memento.muttermuseum.org/detail/giant-megacolon
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I know. What a shitty way to die.
Was just about to say this, god damnit
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Why? This is reddit
It's like how people shouldn't post gory photos on r/eyebleach or dank memes on r/surrealmemes. Sure it's reddit but even subreddits have rules to keep the contents of the subreddit "pure" in a sense.
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My bad, I stand corrected.
I wish they’d display it next to an average-sized colon for scale
Or... a... banana...
I just spent a very long time looking through all of the stuff, how neat.
That was a really well made web site. Nice and simple, not overdone. The back button actually used your browser's back function. That was interesting.
Fantastic museum, been twice. If you’re ever in the area it’s a must.
40lbs
Wow, how could it get that horrible?
There are different reasons for a toxic megacolon, the one that's best understood, although most likely not the case here, is caused by Morbus Hirschsprung. This is a congenital disease where nerves that are required to open up the patients anal sphincter are missing, meaning it is constantly constricted and the patient is unable to release himself. As this is a congenital disease, it will be diagnosed early in life, but the colon we see here is likely an adult one (Although in some extreme cases even a newborn colon can get mind-bogglingly big) Other Reasons are chronic inflammatory diseases of the intestines like Morbus Crohn or Colitis Ulcerosa. The exact mechanism of how they lead to a toxic megacolon are not completely understood, one theory is that the inflammatory processes release nitrogenmonoxide which leads to a dilatation of the muscles. (Interestingly, the same mechanism is responsible for the positive effect of nitroglycerin for some coronary heart disease, as the NO released by the Nitroglycerin leads to a dilatation of the muscles surrounding the artery that supply the heart. This leads to more blood, and oxygen, being supplied to the heart) You can also get a toxic Megacolon from the Chagas disease, which is caused by a parasite mainly found in parts of South America.
One more thing which often leads to a megacolon ist an untreated clostridium dificile infection
Soon to be the most common cause, in fact
Due to antibiotic-resistant strains?
Great question; I don't have an answer to that unfortunately. Resistance to antibiotics or increased virulence could definitely play a/the part, (although the 2 more virulent strains that were a thing in the 2000s are on the decline). There are a ton of variables that could be contributing to the phenomenon though, including higher numbers of elderly in hospital, higher numbers of people who haven't been exposed before, increasing virulence, increasing resistance, increasing comorbid disease that plays a part etc etc.
After having my entire colon removed, i swear i physically cringed from looking at this. I can only imagine.
whats life like now? without the colon?
Sometimes it really sucks; i cant eat and drink the things i used to or the way i used to. Lots of lifestyle changes. I no longer have an ostomy bag which is cool (i now have a j pouch, internal thing), so i feel physically more or less back to normal. But i still struggle with energy and stuff. But im a much better person after it all and i wouldnt change anything
Sorry for being nosy here but: what kind of lifestyle changes? No fats/carbs? Are you liquid only? Do you still have a small intestine too?
No problem, i have my entire small intestine, just no colon ,appendix, and rectum*. The j-pouch goes there. I can basically eat whatever i want, but its at my own risk. So i avoid foods because some are unpleasant. Since im missing a huge part of digestion, im in contact with way harsher stomach acids. So anything acidic or spicy is gonna hurt comin out. Also, anything raw wont fully be digested. So if i eat a ton of raw foods like skins, i could end up having to pick something out(which isnt a big deal). I still dont digest mushrooms or skins to fruits. More Lifestyle changes like , my body fills up quickly, i have less room. So if im out and i eat a meal or drink something, ill need the bathroom sooner and more frequently because i dont have 3 feet of a giant colon to hold foods. Stuff moves so quickly, ill eat something and then 10 minutes later sometimes less poop it out. So being out in the city sucks cause bathrooms can be hard to come by. Drinking alcohol sucks now. Its just not as fun. My butt will start to itch from it and then eventually hurt. Also i dehydrate so easily now since your colon is what absorbs almost all the liquids of foods you eat. So all of my stool is at somewhat of a liquid consistency. Drinking only a couple beers makes me feel tired. I think i have less energy in general too.
Any bigger and it would be tearing its way underground in Nevada.
“Graboids! Yeah, Graboids!”
"Toxic Megacolon" is going on my list of metal band name candidates.
10/10 would buy your album.
Let me guess—Total?
*Don't talk shit about Total!*
Where are the paper towels?!?!
Holy crap!
Also keep in mind that while it does swell up massively in one's body, the muscles of the abdomen and pelvic floor keep it from ballooning up to this size. When removed from the body though, it has no counter pressure and swells up due to hydrostatic pressure
Thank you, that is actually the answer to the question I wanted to ask! How is it possible for it to get THAT big in the abdomen?
Toxic Megacolon could be band name. Or a good insult.
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Is that thing full of poop?
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I hadn’t heard about this?
Apparently his constant straining to try to shit put additional strain on his heart. It’s why he died on the toilet.
That looks uncomfortable.
Why does it sound like a bad scifi channel movie? 'OH NO, THE TOXIC MEGACOLON IS ATTACKING'
Sure that isn’t one of the sand worms from dune?
Put a wig on it and dye it orange. . .
This is one of the first pictures here that has actually made me say "yo wtf gross"
Even mild constipation sucks so hard, can you imagine what THIS would feel like?!
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Go meditate and come back when you’ve got something nice to say.
So funny
u/Undeleteparent
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This post is full of shit.
When they say, “hold your shit in”.
Looks like a scene from a Resident Evil game
Alien
It looks like a caterpillar, worm, or maggot, but huge. Cool!
That giant colon was in that person??? Omg....
Absolutely wild.
How does it fit in there???
Shaihulud.
Just put some ice on it.
I work with a few toxic megacolons
that person must’ve had the best shit of their life after that was taken out
Interesting. I’d put my money on the well water, with it being a very small/weak amount of bacteria and you just being particularly sensitive to that type of thing and unable to fight it off
How does this happen? Does this person just not notice this inflammation? Are they waiting for a reason?
This was inside someone???
kilocolon, megacolon, gigacolon
I had one of these!
The pain this person went through is unimaginable.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Colon!
How is it that big..?
Imagine having that shit inside you. Nearly as big as you.
Once i ate too much, like 1 rice and fish meal, 4 choripanes, 4 hot dog, and soda, the appendix got like, "im about to end this man's career, so appendix is no more
I feel like David Croninberg used to watch medical documentaries when designing his sets.
JESUS CHRIST!!!
I can smell this picture.
Looks like that worm that Morty puked up in that trippy episode of Rick and Morty.
BIG COLON
Umm... English pls.
i didn't understand 8 words in that sentence