Limitations after J Pouch surgeries---Question

When I got my bag, my Ostomy nurse told me I could no longer lift, push, or pull anything over 25 lbs because of a risk for hernias. Apparently I'm much more likely to get a hernia (and come to think of it, the two people in my life I've known to have an ostomy bag of any kind do, in fact, have hernias).

My question, after the Jpouch and take down surgeries, after the recovery, am I still limited???

I lift dogs, dog food, etc and limiting myself to 25 lbs is going to be difficult/impossible. My smallest dog is 30 lbs on a thin day.

How about bowling?? I used to bowl on an ABC sanctioned league with a 13 + pound ball (a few years ago I was ready to move up in size of the ball but probably not so much now). But my bag has two bowling balls in it plus gear and the bag totals up to probably 50 pounds. If I have limits, rolling that ball down the lanes 30+ times in one night could be a problem too. And I LIKE bowling. That's a physical activity most people can do as they age. And we go out with friends bowling on occasion and I don't want to stop that.

I was raised by a tom-boy and have always been active and strong. Well.. Until this year. And I REALLY hate adding limitations to the ones I already had from a bad back (car wrecks and ex psycho--physical therapy taught me the tricks to do whatever I wanted anyway) and female issues.

I know I sound whiney. I'm sorry. It's not helping that it is 4:11am and I can't sleep. In 10 days I start back to work. Not able to sleep at night is not going to work for me at all..

Jen S

thanks!!!

Once you are sufficiently healed, there will be no limitations for lifting. There are jpouchers that are amateur weight lifters and they do fine. Just be sure you follow your surgeon's orders on activity post surgery. Ask him/her when you can get back to bowling and lifting more than 10lbs.

Sue

ive been told to wait six weeks, and after that everything should be fine. (i do lift weights, and significant amounts of weight).

the only thing they said, which is true with ANY type of heavy lifting, is to ease yourself back into it. dont expect to be lifting the weight you were before. remember though, this is specifically with bodybuilding....25, 30, 50 pounds, if you can comfortably lift, there shouldnt be a risk as long as its past six weeks, and you go slow, until you are used to it again.........if getting used to it only takes a week, great!

also, one thing my surgeon did say, is to not try and impress the girl next to me in the gym by squatting or deadlifting massive amounts.......

on that note i still havent done squats or deadlifts yet adn im 2 months post op....wouldnt want my pouch to go shooting out my hole!

you wouldnt be at any risk of that though......they are talking like hundreds of pounds.

I had a temp ostomy for 8 weeks, have 3 incisional areas on my abdomen, permanent staples in my rear end, etc. I was given similar advice but told it was for life.

My weight limit is 30 lbs too. More importantly I was also told never to do sit ups or use nautilis (sp?) equipment at a gym to flatten my stomach. All of these exercises are out, unless I want to risk a hernia. I have flattened my stomach in the past by repeatedly sucking in my stomach as far it will go for 10 seconds and then releasing. I have done this 100x in the past, in batches. Of course 13 years has gone by now and I've gotten lazy. I have gone from a size 8 to a 12. I need to do these simple suck my gut in exercises again. But I slack off.

So in summary, I have lifted things such as the lightest mulch bag (1.5 cubic feet, be wary of the larger bags, even if they're a better value). I have continued to do yardwork but have only filled the wheelbarrow half full of weeds, etc. I currently am employed in a school kitchen but hope to find an office job over the summer. In hindsight I shouldn't have taken a food service job 7 years ago, I wanted that school calendar schedule since I still had daughters in high school. But I quickly realize you do a lot of lifting in a professional kitchen. I was always careful to ask for assistance but I'm sure my surgeon would have said to never work in this type of job. I don't think I've ever had the risk of a hernia but it wasn't smart of me to go to work where I did. I also considered being a teacher's aide but heard you had to lift grown sized children on and off the toilet sometimes and I knew I couldn't lift a 100 lb child! So that's how I landed in a school kitchen.

But I digress, heed your ostomy nurse's advice, you wouldn't want to risk a hernia.

I think you are fine after the "window" as others have said. I have always had really good ab muscles after playing soccer all of my life, long distance running, and a lot of core body training. about a few weeks post op I noticed what appeared to be a relatively large hernia, confirmed by my new surgeon and ostomy nurses. Once I knew the "hernia" was being repaired anyway, I lifted my daughter, my dog, and other things over 25 pounds. The "hernia" never got worse.

It turned out what I had was not a "hernia" at all, but a defect from my previous surgeon. Even after all of the lifting I started to do, I didn't even develop one, and I STILL had an ostomy. I think I'll talk to my surgeon, and I will be getting a good hernia belt, but I don't think I will be as restrictive once the two month period is over.

Roni-ro - yes my restrictions were stated as for life. My temp ostomy was reversed, 8 weeks later, I have 3 incisions on my abdomen - one near my left ovary for the temp ostomy (2 inches across, horizontally), my huge 6-7 inch vertical one, navel to pelvic area main incision, and then they also took out my gall bladder, that was done via laparscopy (sp), so that ended up being 4 tiny incisions, couldn't even find them if I had to. But I still can see both the ostomy and resection incisions, they've faded over the past 13 years. When I pressed my surgeon on these restrictions, he said because I also had had two children vaginally, that's another complicating factor in why I need to be careful. For life. I've just always paid attention to his advice.

But I've never had a hernia, in 13 years, better find some wood to knock, huh?

Yes it is, 13 years, quite an accomplishment. However, I've been a mess ever since! I have worn out each toilet in this house, all 3 have brand new handles, pumps, etc. I can't even tell you the times that a handle would break and there'd I'd be with the back lid off, pulling on the chain. But I would smile because the toilet still flushed. I have joked with my husband, if we won the lotto, I'd want a new house with 10 toilets and 2 sewer lines. In case 1 sewer line backed up. He laughs and says - 10? We're empty nesters! But our daughters frequently come home and well I want to just flat our run to a bathroom that I know no one will be needing. Just the other day at Wal-mart hubby showed me a Coleman camping toilet. I said on the spot - I want that! In case of a nuclear attack!

I hope you know some of my comments are meant in a joking way. With a grain of truth mixed in.

Never did I think my life would revolve around a toilet. There are times I wish I had been given a permanent colostomy (but our insurance is inadequate so I'm putting up with my own working GI tract, for now).