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to be honest im scared to get the j-pouch !!!

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Posted 12/7/2011 9:26 PM (GMT 0)
i just swithched from the depo to the implanan wich stays in my arm for 3 years! so what i am about to say is so off but still relevent .i fell bad and dont have a clear concise at the moment long story short since the surgery i have been hesitant to drink or smoke (weed) because i was simply scared i am not an everyday user it's more like a social one not because people ask me but most times espically when i stress i like to have some just a little anyway i am more tired than every ususally i foucs reall well espically when im in school doing class work but today i have been sleeping in class not focus thinking of nothing and im upset because there is so much work for me to do homefully i will get my energy back but while my high is going bye bye lol i fell helpless again like my body cant handle this anymore and when i cant do things i did before and my body changes on me it makes me feel like i have no controll. I'm hoping no one judges me for an action i take part of (you could say). i wrote this to get it off my chess but please i am for the most part can take critisizm in a healthy and good way but i this topic sometimes it gets emotional for so like my grandma says if you cant say nothing nice dont say nothing at all :) but still fell free to coment :)
Posted 12/7/2011 10:29 PM (GMT 0)
Jackie, I think that all along in your healing you've been frustrated at things not going faster. You'll get there.... try to focus one day at a time and think about what you can do now and how that's more than you could do a week ago. You were sick for a long time. Be nice to yourself and let yourself heal. It's hard ....

Alcohol is pretty hard on the guts, and it is a depressant. It's early. For the smoking, if you do, be sure to tell the anesthesiologist as it can affect how your lungs react during surgery. I would take your hesitation on both to mean you're not ready, so please be patient. One thing is that if you're going to be "impaired" you need to be sure that you can still handle your ostomy bag and hopefully are pretty confident that you aren't likely to have a leak. You also, as you said, want to make sure you'll have enough energy the next day to do the things you need to do.

And try not to worry about things like fertility that are way down the line.... why not promise yourself that you'll think about that in a year?
Posted 12/8/2011 3:57 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Jackie,

I did some research re: the fertilty question. It is true that you have less of a chance of having trouble conceiving because you had your surgeries laproscopically. Traditional open incision surgeries cause more internal scarring, which is what leads to the infertility. However, there is still a lot of info out there re: a decreased infertility rate for those who have had the surgery as well as those who haven't had the surgery but have UC. I have included a few links below. Some are very technical but all, except for the one from this site, are from medical journals.

www.iossg.org.uk/asset_store/document/ileoanal_pouches.doc
http://www.surgjournal.com/article/S0039-6060(04)00392-7/abstract
http://books.google.ca/books?id=DhQ1A35E8jwC&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=j+pouch+fertility&source=bl&ots=Ck2lYqnp-3&sig=sO5wisBG-hMXCDi-4zAyY1Gj_TU&hl=en&ei=njHgTqSlGMjj0gGfiIW3Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CGQQ6AEwCTge#v=onepage&q=j%20pouch%20fertility&f=false (see page 165)
https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=1706007

As said before, this is a personal decision and you should speak openly to your doctor about the present and future pros and cons of any surgery.
Posted 12/8/2011 6:44 AM (GMT 0)
thanks blueglass. my body is definily readytosmoke andim still scared to drink alchol for two reasons idont know how the output will be (i know it will stink though) 2nd i am extremmly clumsy to. earlier today when i was trying to empty my bag emotionaly i became upset and i think it tookme a lil min. to figure how i wanted to empty it. but i know know thati simly just cant handle it. about the fertility i suppose i shouldn't worry about it i guess when i heard about it and made me think didi i do something wrong here (by getting the surgery) but i know i made the right decission.
maazee11 thanks for the links :)
Posted 12/9/2011 1:34 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, I think holding off on the alcohol is a good idea. I have never really been able to tolerate much alcohol, even way before I was diagnosed w/IBd. When I was in college, I would get drunk every once in a while, and then spend the entire night in the bathroom throwing up and being totally miserable. After a few times, it occurred to me that this was not fun, and so I stopped. Anything more than a small glass of wine threw me off.... now, I'm just used to not drinking much and I'm fine w/it.

Can't help you much w/the weed.... I grew up in the 70s and for a while all my friends smoked, but I just never wanted to..... I was really quite a nerd, and well, I just hated smoking and being out of control..... I did hear at one point that some people found it helpful for colitis symptoms and considered it, but never tried....

I do think it's very important to be honest w/your doctors though. Legally, the info is confidential and they can't tell your parents.

I think it's very normal to fear that you made the wrong decision w/surgery. I hope you don't have fertility issues down the line, but even if you do, well, other women have them too, you likely won't know whether it's from the surgery or not..... and well, I'm biased, because the main kid in my life is adopted and she's fabulous..... so there are other options. (also have to be honest, she is your age, and if she were the one talking about drinking and smoking, I would be having a much more parental kind of really don't want you to do that reaction..... but I think you were more looking for information and am going with that)
Posted 12/10/2011 3:53 AM (GMT 0)
right the lady that told me about the firtelity emailed me again and gave me more info asking me if i knew i would be going to the bathroom alot wich i do know but she also told me she talked to her doc. and are finding jpouch has a lifespand a few decades(which i plan to live for ) and sometimes the person w/ the jpuch can end up going back to a ileobag i am goingto do my resarch again ofcourse!!!
and blueglass i thank you for the small but BIG hint of don't do that again i dont care how old you are mother vibe i apperciate it as a member of this website i look up to you as my cyber mother lol :D
Posted 12/11/2011 2:44 AM (GMT 0)
Alcohol can give you severe diarrhea as you can imagine not having the colon to absorb it. Shoots right through the small intestine. Darn no more drinking. Nothing I was into anyway, but miss that occasional wine and cheese party. Rosemary
Posted 12/11/2011 12:18 PM (GMT 0)
Jackie, thanks that's sweet. So OK, I'll be direct, I think it's good if you hold back on the drinking and smoking now. Are you doing yoga? That's a great alternative, I know you said you liked that.

I looked it up and the first J pouch surgeries were done in the early 80's, which is only 30 years ago. You have to figure that people have gotten a lot better at the procedure over the years, which would mean that people don't really know the long term life of a j pouch. Also, if you had trouble decades from now, they'd probably have better techniques then. Also, the j pouch is made of your intestines which last a life time. You might have to go in and have more surgery sometime to redo it or to change to an ostomy, but the small intestine is very long -- people live without pieces of it.....

Just be clear that "research" does not mean googling and then picking the scariest thing you find to worry about ..... people are a lot more likely to write when they are having problems than when things are going fine. Look for studies from medical journals and then read them with a critical eye. If you aren't sure how to do this, ask specific questions, as you have been doing.
Posted 12/11/2011 3:21 PM (GMT 0)
yes i like yoga im gonna tryto getback to doing it !!! no i havent drank alchol i am scared it will burn my stoma lol :)
i have yoga dvd's so i will probally start with that
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