Dilation via surgery

#1

Hi there,

Connor had his pull-through last August and was doing fine or so I thought. When we went home the Dr. told us we had to dilations at home using this rod thing and we did it everyday for a long time then we had to stop because it was becoming too traumatizing for Connor, myself and my oldest son who had to hold Connor down. Just last week however, we went in for a follow up appt and the doctor did her exam and told me his bum had pretty much sealed shut (the scar tissue healed too well apparently). Anyways long story short, he went in to have a rectal dilation done by surgery and the surgeon also injected him with a chemotherapy drug called Mitomycin to slow down the scar tissue from forming. Has anyone ever heard of this being done?? I was completely floored and dumbstruck when they told me all of this, I didn’t really know what to say. If anyone can give me anything to go, it would be greatly appreciated because I can’t find anything on the net regarding a procedure like this.

thanks
Lisa

#2

Hi lisa, aaron has had dilatation done by surgery as well. However, they are not just doing his once they want to do it 3 or 4 times to stretch his bowel. He too is tight shut but we are lucky that he still has an ostomy bag. If they didn’t explain it to you, they put a wire in there, slide a balloon up and blow it up. They started with a 1 cm balloon and progressed to a 1.4 cm with aaron. However, there is soo much there they are expecting to have to cut out that section of the bowel as well. I never heard of that chemo drug before but i will ask the surgeon the next time i see her. good luck, keep me posted.