Eli5: How does the colon “know” what to absorb. Seeing as it can absorb dissolvable content inserted there. What prevents it from just reabsorbing all the fecal content?
In: Biology
You don’t really need a colon. Your colon just kinda sucks out the last bit of water that’s left from the small intestine.
How do I know this?
Two months ago I had 3/4 of my colon removed because of hundreds of polyps inside of it. Luckily, none of them were cancerous, yet. Eventually one or more would have if not removed.
A week before the surgery, my gastroenterologist did a colonoscopy, and went up the colon until he found the last polyp. He then tattooed that area of the colon to mark where the surgeon had to make his cut. It was done laparoscopically and left me with about 8” of colon. I’ve had to adjust my diet somewhat to cut back on fiber , or else I have diarrhea all the time. Even if they took all the colon, I could still live a somewhat normal life without having a bag. I do have to have yearly colonoscopies to check to see if more polyps start growing in what’s left.
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