Total Colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis

I have an ileorectal anastomosis but I had an ileostomy for a couple of years first. My colon was removed due to severe Crohn's, not polyps however.

Is your surgeon going to give you a temporary stoma first or hook you up in one operation?

I got unlucky after my reconnection. I developed an ileus (paralysis of the bowel) right after the operation, which kept me in hospital for nearly 2 weeks and was hell on earth. Then shortly after that the Crohn's came back, so I didn't get much of a break really.

Hopefully it will go much more smoothly for you. You are gonna have a lot more BMs at first, but that should settle down over the following weeks and months - keep some calmoseptine or other ointment cream near the toilet. Keep to a bland low-residue diet for at least 6 weeks while the bowels heal - they will be sore and swollen for a while. Eventually you can expect to end up having anything from 4-8 soft BMs a day. It sounds a lot, but if there's no inflammation there won't be any urgency, bleeding or pain, which makes a massive difference. But yeah, without a colon, you'll never be able to have 1 solid BM a day ever again.

Oops, almost missed this.

You should be able to eat salads and raw veggies once everything is healed up, but I would introduce them fairly slowly and cautiously - try a small salad or a couple of raw veggies first of all before jumping into a massive salad. I mostly avoid salads and vegetables now - more than I did with a stoma. But I have active Crohn's, which makes a difference. I used to be able to eat everything, even with Crohn's, but that was before I had a stricture, bowel surgery, etc. My bowels are not what they were.

I was 40 when I had my surgery.