Resection with IC valve, part of terminal ileum, cecum removed due to fistula and stricture

I had this exact surgery almost 9 months ago. I lost 8" of my terminal ileum, appendix, and 3" of colon plus my fistula and a couple of abscesses. If your doctor is recommending it, it might be something to think about. My doctor recommended it for almost 6 months before I finally had the surgery scheduled. I did everything I could to put it off : Remicade, SCD, full liquid diet but it was the fistula on my lower abdomen that finally pushed me to the surgery. I was pretty sick at the time and my mentality was "well, I have nothing left to lose but my fistula..." I'm glad I did it, but it was not an easy road.

Recovery wasn't easy...I was in the hospital for 4 days. Full liquids until I had my first BM, then soft food. I remember the first time I passed gas and I was so happy. It was really, really sad. I ended up being at home on the couch for 2 full weeks before I really got up and took walks around my neighborhood. At 3 weeks, I was driving. I started a new job at 4 weeks, even though my doctor recommended 6. Though recovery is based on a lot of things like age, how sick you are, your general disease state and your mental state too. I was resolved for surgery : mentally and emotionally. So I think being emotionally ready and making a conscious choice makes going through it easier then if you don't have a choice in the event of an emergency.

I'm glad I had the surgery...though now I have problems with diarrhea and I've had to learn what I can/can't eat. I have adhesions. But I'm glad I did it. I feel better then I have in years. But with how sick I was, I had nothing left to lose when I had the surgery...

I had this surgery last June. Please see the second link in my signature for a lot of details I shared about my recovery last year.

I was concerned about having my IC valve removed, too. A lot of people advised me that it may lead to a lot of bad D for long past the recovery period...for me, it wasn't uncontrollable, exploding, or anything, but I did have more D than anything else for about 3 weeks. I didn't take anything for it during that time, because I didn't want to mess with the bowel muscles re-learning how to work together.

Since then, I've had more trouble with constipation. Doctor has me on miralax daily, and that keeps my bowels moving OK. For D, I've heard that there is a powder they can give you to help with that, too. So either way, you'll find out what the problem is, if anything, after a couple of month, and they'll have a powder to help you out.

Words of wisdom...a lot of folks here have said that they felt so much better after the surgery. I would say that, too. However, I stop short of saying "I wish I wouldn't have put it off so long" for a couple of reasons.

1 - I wanted to make sure it really was immovable scar tissure and not an active flare. I wanted surgery to be a last resort because

2 - There are risks with surgeries. The risks are usually pretty small, but folks generally don't want to have a surgery unless there are no alternatives. I don't want to be a history revisionist and say that since the outcome was good for me that I shouldn't have waited.