Temporary ileostomy without colectomy--huge relief of flare

I didn't know there was a uceris foam. I have used cortifoam a lot.

I just looked it up. Sounds pretty cool!

www.salix.com/products/uceris-rectal-foam/

I would definitely give that a try. I wonder if it's cheaper than cortifoam, i always get hit with a $50 copay for cortifoam. I don't see any coupons available :(

Uceris tablets? Uceris releases in the large intestine, it will have virtually no effect on your colon if you take it orally. Nothing you eat is reaching your colon right now

pluot: i think she is saying that she's going to try to use the coupon for the tablets to get the foam. I would try this too but i doubt they are going to accept it.

rbartolo: i belive she does have a bag. it's temporary. there would be no point in diverting things into a situation where you're using the pieces you're tryin gto rest. I don't think she's had anything removed, just had the stool diverted to the stoma so things heal. After that, she will be reattached, and everything will be back to normal. I would imagine there would be some scarring but that's all.

Elisa; thank you for explaining it. I've resisted surgery in the most stubborn way possible until this last yr of hell. This type of surgery may help me come to terms with it.

What was your recovery time like? How do you feel energy wise? You could peel me off the floor.

Elisa - how long has it been so far with the temporary illeostomy? Are you going to try the Uceris Foam?

Also, you may want to ask the doctor and the surgeon how long you could keep this type of diversion for. For example, if you are doing well and in remission while disconnected, then you reconnect everything, and then the disease comes back upon reconnection, then what? Can you again back to the temporary illeostoy with colon in place with hopes for a better future treatment or cure discovery? And how long can you keep it in this way with temporary illeostomy with colon in place? Could you go on for years like this because I think there are complications that can happen but I am not sure.

I have been on Vedolizumab/Entyvio for over a year now! It has partially worked.

Interesting on what your surgeon said about the temp illeostomy. My GI had said that people do this kind of thing for fistuals in Crohns and it works but that you can't really keep it for more than a year or 2 because of, like you said, diversion colitis and also I think there are other potential complications like the rectal muscles can get weak and there is more risk of cancer because the tissue is just sitting there and not being used or something.

Just so everyone knows and to clear up some confusion, this procedure is called a "loop ileostomy" (as opposed to an end ileostomy) and it is very common and very easy to perform. As others have mentioned, the only real risk is the fact that your colon is now deprived of new gut bacteria and sources of butyrate, which can lead to diversion colitis. However, this can be helped with special enemas

I'm doing well on the Entyvio. It's a little hard to tell whether the improvements are coming from the surgery or the Entyvio, but I'm having less and less blood, cramping, urgency and frequency. It's gradual, but so nice to feel I'm getting better rather than worse. It's almost even livable now. I can go out without worrying--much--about finding a bathroom.

Glad to hear you are doing well elw. Are they going to scope you while you are in the current configuration?

One thing I'd be curious if you ask your doctor - what does this type of configuration to do the increased cancer risk of UC patients? Does it go down? One doctor was saying it can go up because of lack of use of the intestine but it doesn't seem clear.

Ok thanks elw - maybe if you get a chance, can you ask him next time? Because if one can have this type of configuration for some time while waiting for a better treatment and cancer risk is decreased since inflammation should be going down with nothing going through the colon, it would be a nice temporary solution! =)

This is similar to what I went through. I had a left hemicolectomy and removed 15 inches of the left side of my colon. I have my rectum and a small portion of my sigmoid colon. The area removed was where my disease always attacked, after the left side my colon the rest was always clear. We decided to remove the bad section and see what happens from there. Due to a bowel leak, I had emergency surgery and had to get a temp diversion ostomy while the surgery join healed. I had my bag for about 4 months, passing mucus every day. After I got it reversed, it took a considerable amount of time for my colon to "relearn" to work again. The muscles weren't used for 4 months and it was very hard for me to control my bowels. I had to put a garbage bucket at the end of the couch because I could never make it to the bathroom. I also lived wearing depends every day for quite some time. Not long after my reversal my disease popped right back up but this time attacked my entire colon so now I have pancolitis. Parts that were never inflamed are now. I'm consulting with a new surgeon to possibly do the J-Pouch in the summer as I'm out of med options. Nothing seems to work for me anymore outside of prednisone and I can't stay on that. I'm only on Prednisone and 6MP currently. Remicade failed, Entyvio didn't work at all. I can't hold enemas in anymore and the suppositories don't work. I'm not sure what I want to do yet, I need to get off prednisone for the surgery and I'm curious how my body will react when I'm off. It took me almost a year to get my bowels back to a controllable state. I still have episodes where I can't control my BM's at all.

Ha, I always crave the worst junk food when I can't have it. I normally eat very healthy, though!

Blksteeda, wow, it sounds like you've been through a lot. My surgeon didn't mention anything about losing bowel control after the reversal--that sounds terrible! I'm going to ask him about it and start doing Kegels immediately! My GI warned me that the disease could come right back if did the reconnection, but I'm hoping the Entyvio will get me into remission and maintain it. If I don't get into remission (my GI will scope me to see), I think I'll go straight to the j-pouch. Nothing has worked for me med-wise either (even prednisone didn't do anything) except the Entyvio. I just hope it works well enough. The temporary ileostomy has at least made me less afraid of surgery--I think I can handle it if it comes to that. I'm not willing to live in a flare anymore. Good luck with your decisions.