ileostomy reversal

First of all, congratulations on a successful surgery. I've spent most of this summer getting sliced open too, so I know how difficult it can be. Hang in there. My situation is a little different from yours (they took my nemesis, the colon, out), but I definitely understand your feelings on the ostomy. I was more terrified of that thing than anything else in this world. Once things settled down and started working how they were supposed to, I couldn't believe how good I felt. I really, really didn't think that I would have ever hear myself say this, but if I had to choose living with UC or with an ostomy, I would take the ostomy in a second. I am also fairly young (28) and thought that the ostomy would just ruin my social life (whatever left of it there was). This was not the case at all. I was able to do things that I hadn't been able to for years.

As far as the reversal goes, it has been just over two weeks, and things are going well for me. The day of my surgery I felt great, but there were a few days after where the gas pains were intense. Otherwise, I guess that it has been pretty good. Life was more predictable with the ostomy. Learning to manage my new pouch is trickier than I thought, but you don't have to worry about that. The positive to keeping the bag I think is that it really gives your guts a break and puts less stress on them. Without the bag, everything has to work a little bit harder. I think that in the long-run, I will be happy to be rid of the bag and using the bathroom in a relatively normal way. It will just be the better part of a year till I get there. So my advice is to enjoy the ostomy while you have it. Don't be ashamed, there is nothing wrong with it. I also blogged about my surgery and recovery while I was in the hospital, if you want to check it out it is at rectum-dangnearkilledhim.blogspot.com. If worst comes to worst, I think that they can give you a new ostomy if you really regret getting rid of it, but I doubt that it will come to that. Good luck in the meantime. The 12 weeks will go by much faster than you anticipate.

-Rich

There is almost nothing that I enjoy talking about more these days than ostomies. There is a lot of info to cover about them. Have you done any research thus far? How is your UC doing? It seems like you are thinking about an ostomy pretty quickly into your diagnosis (at least from my experience). Basically, my UC got worse and worse, and I was on more and more meds every 6 months until I decided to have the surgery (with the ostomy). I had an ileostomy which means that it was part of my ileum (a specific part of the intestines). It seemed really gross and unsettling at first, but it wasn't bad after a few weeks. Once I got my system figured out it was a breeze. Let me know what kind of questions you have regarding the ostomy or UC in general, I would be happy to answer any. I know how unsettling it can be at first.