My long time friend and riding buddy when he is around, recently had a brain tumor removed, now had to have his complete large intestine removed. It’s going to take a good year before they install and hook up his faux colon and he then has to train the thing. Anyone know what this will do to his ability to exercise? Does the body adapt or is endurance stuff going to be a problem?
As a side note many are hinting that the use of PED’s is the underlying cause. He admitted to me that he tried steroids for a very short while. Others tell me they suspect he used EPO and other things as well. His reasoning for the use was that everyone else at the top was doping and it was his only way to keep up. I know he trained his heart out only to be dusted, so whether that is just his way to level the playing field to either improve himself or keep up with the dopers, it was his only way to play the game. If doping is to blame, 33 and no colon is a tough price to pay and another reason to play clean.
My father just had a 12" of his colon removed. He is 61 and in decent shape because he works on the farm a lot. He drinks to much, eats shitty food, and smokes so he probably is not a good person to go by but according to the doctors once things have a chance to heal he should be back to normal. He did have an illiostomy bag for a couple of months due to some complications and infection which caused them to remove his appendix. I do know that it has been 3 weeks now since they reversed his illiostomy and the retraining your colon thing has been a bitch for him. For an endurance athlete I can’t imagine what a new colon would do but I don’t see him running a marathon anytime soon. His Ironman days may be over. I think a lot depends on the individual though. I feel for him, I know my father has been miserable for the last several months. I’ll be surprised if he ever gets back to 100%. As a side note the retain the colon thing means when it hits you you only got a few seconds to take care of business and don’t think for a second you can just let a little fart rip.
Julianne White has a website dedicated to people such as your friend. The website is <www.semicolon.org>. A friend of ours in Kona is colonless and completed Ironman 2003 and continues to be active.
Cant say much about a colostomy bag as I didn’t start training until long after the j-pouch (faux colon) was working.
The pouch is not performing as well as they said it would pre-surgery. I have gone years without sleeping over two hours at a stretch. Its a big adjustment and still reqires medication to control, if not daily, weekly.
However, the longer I ride and run the better it is. Not always but usually. Last season I did a half IM, a long course, two olys, half a dozen sprints, a dozen weeknight crits, a few time trials, 12 and 24 hour MTB races and a half marathon all without incident.
Working up to an IM for next year. Recent training involves 3k swims, 100-200k rides and 25-30k runs. Again without incident.
The surgery was necessitated by chronic colitis which was treated with large doses of prednisone for many years. So whether it was PED or medical steroid use, seems like the result is the same. Though the prescription was supposed to help.