Takedown yesterday

Good luck! I hope your recovery is easy and, yes, please let us know how it goes. It is good for me to hear positive things, so I might have something to look forward to

I just had my take down yesterday. I too had to have a 3 step J-Pouch surgery. My pouch has started working today and it works great. No pain, or blood and stool is formed like little nuggets

I have been given the all clear to eat and if I keep breakfast down I can go home today. This is a big boost :)
made it through the night with no leaks or problems.
Still passing gas and output still not formed ( not suprised as no food yet!)

Surgery went very well today...completely uneventful!. All the work was done through the stoma hole. More pain than expected but controllable with meds.

Glad to hear from others again - lets keep moving forward!

well, its been 4 days since takedown for me now and my head is a lot clearer now I have had a few good nights sleep.

I have slept without any leaks which is great, and I am also sleeping well only getting up once or twice in the night (just the same as with my stoma).

I two found the pain after surgery more than I was expecting.  In recovery they asked me to take deep breaths on the oxygen mask but couldnt as my tummy hurt.  They soon got me on a self control pain pump which I used for about an hour and a half until the worst of it went away.  Still taking some pain meds at home as still sore - hurts when coughing, moving etc..

I am eating small child size portions of food at the moment as feel bloated quite a lot - normal after this type of surgery though and happened after my first 2, end and loop ileostomy surgeries.  Also eating very safe food.

Total control over when I go to the toilet.  Going about 6 times a day the moment.  In a way I am worried as that is so much lower than what I was expecting.  I am getting a half and half ratio of formed to loose BMs.  Butt burn has set in so will be googling shortly for help with that!!  Butt burn is far less to none existant when BM are formed.

All in all 4 days out feel very happy with the result. 

My girlfriend and I cleared out my stoma supplies last night which I found hard to do.  It gave me my life back and I was almost scared to turn my back on it. 

 

Today is third day post surgery. Dillon is having numerous bowel movements that are all very watery which is to be expected since he still cannot have any food. His belly is still somewhat destended and they are waiting for this to go away before food is started. Pain is pretty much no longer an issue. Today he is dressed and going for extended walks. Recovery is actually going quite quickly.

How are you guys doing?

Yes im doing pretty well also . My surgery was last Thursday 25th Feb. Im out of hospital and back home. I had butt burn up to yesterday but went and bought some soft flushable wipes and some 15.25% zinc oxide cream. Both work great, and dont have much burning anymore.

Took immodium in the morning and that slows things down greatly. Probably only go to the toilet 6 times a day now and comes out almost formed and not much butt burn. So far so good. Still some surgery pain but i walked 5km today so perhaps its related to the walking so close to the surgery.

I watched dennis' videos also, which were very helpful, I'm thinking that Imodium is more of a benefit than Dennis suggests. He only uses it occasionally whereas i think if it was used daily it would greatly help the frequency and acid content.

Best thing to wake up bladder and bowels if definitely walking and showering.

Broadwind - Yes i too will be using Loperimide on a daily basis to help with acid and number of BMs a day.  I spoke with my stoma nurse (with a Jpouch i still come under their care) and said a week out i wanted to start with loperimde to help with those issues and she thought that was a good idea.  So far today (11:30am) i have had breakfast with no urge to go to the toilet yet.  I took one 2mg loperimde a couple of hours ago.  I am going to try one mid afternoon and then one at bed.  Adjust tomorrow depending on results!  I am feeling hopeful though.  I have also got some metamucil wafers on order to help with acid and bulk things up.  This might take the place of loperimide is it works.

Chasblah - I had mine done over 3 steps.  Step one remove colon and make an end ileostomy.  Step two was make Jpouch out of the end of my intestines, join with anal mucles and then make a loop ileostomy further up my intestines track and mount it at the same stoma site as before.  Step 3 was just close the loop.  You are right, there is so many bad vibes about Jpouch online that it put me right off to begin with.  The fact is, this treatment is the gold standard for UC so there is far more success than failure.  I took to opinion that if it all fails i can go back to a stoma - but i couldnt have lived the rest of my life thinking "what if".  I have to try it.  So far so good!!

We are now 12 days post surgery. Dillon came home on day 8. We were longer than normal due to the fact that he ended up with a partial obstruction from the swelling at the new join site. He had an anal tube inserted due the large amount of output and was given NOTHING (except the odd ice chip) until the distention completely subsided and the output decreased. This took a couple of days. Before he left the hospital he had been eating small amounts for two days.

He is now doing really well. Actually much better that we expected. He is having about 8-9 bowel movements a day and is usually only getting up 1x during the night. The other night he slept for 7 hours. The output has also thickened up. Yesterday, at one point, is was actually formed...very skinny but formed! He is drinking a lot so he is not getting dehydrated and is feeling really good. He has also put on 4 pounds since he left the hospital.

Hope everyone else is doing well,
Cathy

Erf,
that is normal.. I have that a lot too.. it is almost as tho someone sqeezed your tummy and SHOVED all the poop out..it is just your j pouch adjusting..tht is what the doc told me.
I do still go 6-8 times a day ( one year post pouch), but it is pretty well controled. I do notice that certain foods will make me have urgency, but it is not often.
Something else to remember, if you drink a lot of red iquids, your stool will appear to be bloody, but it isn't... so don't panic if you drink a gallon of red koolaid or juice and then think you are bleeding internally...not so. :)
But glad to hear all things are going well for all of you :)
Hear is a dumb question, I have seen many people say they actually miss their stoma after take down... has anyone ever had a "stoma funeral"... like a party where you have friends and family over and celebrate it being gone? Sounds odd, but it may help you mentally prepare for life with out it.. kind of like the old mortgage-burning parties..
lol
well, it's a thought :)

Thank you all for the updates. It's good information to see how people are progressing (good and bad) as they recover. Thanks for taking the time to share.