Second surgery of three?

So after battling ulcerative colitis for 15 years I am finally in the process of getting my entire colon completely ripped out. I've already had the first of three surgeries to completely eliminate my colon and live a normal life again, and as much as recovery from the first surgery sucked, I still don't regret doing it for a second. If something were to happen in my next two surgeries and I did have to have this ileostomy bag the rest if my life I'd be totally ok with it. It sucks having a bag but it is still infinitely better than having UC!

But I do have a question about my second surgery. My first surgery, they took out all of my colon except for the last ten inches. I have been living with an ileostomy since this surgery on October 17th. My second surgery is scheduled for February 8th, and I'm curious... How different is the recovery going to be for that surgery compared to my first? This second surgery they are taking out the remaining ten inches of the colon and using my small intestine to form the j pouch, creating a whole new rectum and everything. It's my understanding that I'm going to have staples in my butt which makes me think recovery will be more painful? Also, if I can't feel myself poop out of my stoma now, how am I going to feel when I have to poop normally with the j pouch?

A lot of questions I know, but hopefully some of ya have some good words for me :)

I have a permanent ileo, so don't have experience w/the surgery you're going for, but I laughed when you used the phrase "ripped out." When I was getting ready for my colectomy, they asked me if I understood why I was there -- a standard pre op question -- and I said, "so that you can rip my guts out."

Hey, Crosby. I also found recovery from the second surgery to be a bit rougher than the first but, I also had some minor complications so it is really hard for me to compare the two. My surgeon did say #2 is the "biggest" of the three surgeries, so there is that. I wasn't really in any more pain or anything, it just seemed to take a lot longer to get my energy back and feel healthy, etc.

I couldn't feel anything like a wound inside my rectum. I don't know exactly how they attach all that stuff inside there (I tried really hard not to think about it too deeply!) but I didn't notice any kind of pain or feeling like there were staples in there or anything. I don't think you will either. They can do a sort of stapling to attach the pouch, but it's all up inside, you won't have staples on the outside or anything.

You don't feel the need to poop or urge from your stoma because there is no sphincter muscle or nerve involvement there. It's just a hole and stuff just sort of plops out when it gets there. With your rectum, you have the sphincter muscles which hold things closed until you go to the bathroom and relax them to let the poop out. Your rectum is also full of nerves that sense something is there and send the signal to your brain that you have to go. Your stoma doesn't have either of those things, which is why it works differently.

You will likely get to experience "using" your pouch a little before your third surgery as you will have mucous that accumulates in there and then you'll feel like you need to poop and you can pass it on the toilet. It freaked me out at first, until I knew it was normal. Now, I'm kind of happy about it because I can tell when I need to go, I can hold it if I need to (one time for like an hour!), and then when I am ready for it to come out, it does. If things are working that well for this pure liquid stuff, I'm confident my j-pouch will be just fine.

Don't be too scared.....just expect that you will be more tired for a longer time. If you have more questions, just ask. I had step 2 of 3 in late October and there are other recent people here as well.