‘They closed it like a drawstring’

A Philadelphia woman is speaking out about undergoing a proctocolectomy in her mid-twenties, saying living without her rectum and colon now feels “pretty normal.”

Maggie Tretton, now 29, underwent the operation in 2019 after battling Crohn’s disease for more than a decade.

“I feel completely different, but at the same time, completely normal,” Tretton said in a recent video post to her YouTube channel, where she boasts nearly 100,000 subscribers.

“In my case, when it comes to what it looks like and feels like, it’s pretty normal,” she added, saying even her bikini waxers notice no abnormalities with her bottom.

Crohn’s disease, a painful inflammation of the digestive tract that can result in diarrhea, malnutrition, fatigue and weight loss, affects an estimated half a million Americans.

In extreme cases, such as Tretton’s, doctors may suggest a proctocolectomy, whereby surgeons remove the colon and rectum before creating a new pathway for waste to be excreted.

By the time she was 25 years old, Crohn’s disease had ravaged Tretton’s intestinal tract, causing her chronic pain. When a surgeon offered up the option of the operation, she recalled thinking: “Screw it, let’s get this baby out.”

The serious procedure involved surgeons closing her anus “like a drawstring.”

Due to her severe inflammatory bowel disease, Tretton had also developed a “fistula tract” — a “tunnel or pathway from [her] rectum to [her] tailbone” — which was also closed during surgery.

Tretton told her followers that full recovery from the operation took close to a year, given the location of the wound.

“It’s between your cheeks, so it’s not getting a lot of airflow, ” she candidly admitted. “It’s in between skin folds. It’s just a really rough place to heal.”

Now, close to four years on from the operation, Tretton’s pain is completely “gone” and she feels “normal.” Her waste is deposited into an ostomy bag which is emptied multiple times per day.

“It doesn’t feel as weird or different as I expected prior to surgery,” she stated.

While she believed that the surgery would “numb” the whole area around her anus, Tretton discovered that this has not been the case.

“I still have nerve endings down there, it’s still a sensitive area, it’s just missing a major feature,” she confessed. “There is no opening. It looks just like the hole is missing.”

While Tretton likely would have gotten the procedure done “sooner” if she had known how successful it would be she still feels “lucky” to be able to feel relief from her condition.

“[I’m] very thankful three-plus years later — it looks good, it feels good, it’s a little bit different but nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and don’t regret it one bit,” she admitted.

Now, the young woman has devoted her social media presence to spreading awareness about her condition and educating others — especially those who might not realize a proctocolectomy is possible.

The Post has reached out to Tretton for further comment.