Ileostomy reversal - what to expect?

I had surgery to remove about 18 inches of my sigmoid colon in 2010. I had an ileo for about two months, then got reconnected. So, unlike most of the folks here, I don't have a permanent ileo, nor do I have a J-pouch. It sounds like your son will be similar to my situation. I had my predation on a Monday. I was walking on Tuesday and I really needed to walk. I had very intense tomach gas and walking helped. I was very bad Tuesday night and walked from about 11Pm to 4AM. I got to know the night shift really well. Around 4AM, I was able to pass gas and about an hour later came my first bowel movement. After that, I was on the toilet about 12 times that day until my surgeon finally took pity on me and let have an Immodium. Things were ine after that. I was discharged on Friday and my ileo incision was kept slightly open to allow draining and prevent infection. It took about two weeks for it to completely close and my wife helped me dress the wound and also to clean it out. I kept my diet similar to the ileo diet, meaning not a lot of fibrous foods. I gradually added fiber back in and within about two months, I was back to my normal diet. In terms of exercise, my surgeon told me no weights for at least a month. I think I cheated. Little and started back in on light weights in three weeks. I did a lot of walking for cardio exercise and now do about 5 or 6 miles on the treadmill each day, along with my regular weight routine at he gym. The only complication I had was about 5 months after I was reconnected, we returned fom a cruise to Mexico and I had to be hospitalized with a bowel obstruction. Apparently, I didn't drink enough water and probably had a little too much wine, which ended up dehydrating me. Because my colon was already a little constricted in the area of he reconnect, the dehydration just blocked everything. Lots of Luis took care of everything, though.

So, based on my experience

Walk a lot
Drink plenty of fluids
Keep with an ileo diet at first and gradually add foods
Be prepared for a lot of gas pains for about a month
Be ready to clean and dress the wound

Good luck to both you and your son.

I'm doing pretty good physically these days. It was a rough few months while I had the ileo and, honestly, I don't know if I would have gotten through it without my wife. She kept on me about my diet and helped with the bags and cleaning.

Your experience sounds a lot worse than mine. I wasn't on a respirator and I didn't have a hysterectomy (unless something really strange happened). I did have to go back in for small bowel obstruction and then again because I contracted pneumonia (probably from that wonderful NG tube. While I was in for that, I had a prolapse, which meant another surgery to correct that and redo the ileo. At one time, I was convinced I would never get out, but my wife kept beating optimism into m nd I am fine now.