Is surgery giving up?

Wow surgery in 2 weeks!! For my final surgery I also had to wait 2 weeks. I felt the same as you, I wanted it the next day once I made my decision. I've seen some on here have to wait as long as 6-8 weeks for their surgery, I can't imagine!

Good luck with surgery. Even with the surgical pain it was amazing how much better I already felt when I woke up without my colon. It was hard to describe but my body felt calm and the disease pain was gone.

Very insightful responses from everyone. Seems like most don't feel that having surgery is giving up. On the other hand, I know others who have had complications with surgery such as chronic pouchitis. Everyone does have a different experience.

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Post Edited By Moderator (iPoop) : 4/21/2017 6:16:27 PM (GMT-6)

I can vouch for what iPoop has said. I empty my j-pouch 4-5 times every 24 hours. The BMs are evenly spaced out. I empty my j-pouch when I get up, after lunch, after dinner, and again before I go to bed. I rarely need to get up in the night to empty it - probably once every two weeks. There is no sense of urgency, and if it's not convenient to go, I can hold on for hours. I am in a regular routine for emptying mine, as those are convenient times of day to use the bathroom, although it's rarely the case that I wake up/get to my lunch break etc, and am desperate to go. It really is a case of going when it suits me.

Emptying a j-pouch is different than emptying a normal bowel, in that you sit on the toilet and release, and the contents of your j-pouch drop immediately. Emptying it, for me at least, takes a few seconds.

Not sure if it's cause my pouch is still new, but for me it is not just a few seconds. It can take 5 mins or so. The initial emptying is quick, but then I feel like there's still some left after that.

Just my personal experience. But it is about 5-6 times in 24 hours, I usually get up in the middle of the night and usually have to go 5-7 hours after I eat.

Most say they feel great right after the surgery, no more large intestine from which the problems originated. There is a point where they wean you off of pain meds and there will be some discomfort temporarily (it's a major plumbing revamp). Walk as much as you can as soon as ypu can for best results.

Surgery isn't given up, its choosing life. I have a friend (with Chrons- very severe) and she said that her total colostomy was the best decision she ever made. It gave her her life back, and she doesn't regret it for a second

I hope you have a surgeon set up back home to visit for smaller issues.

After my surgeries I probably went and saw my surgeon a total of about 5-10 times within a 2 month period for various ailments relating to the surgery. If I had to make a 8 hour trip every time to see my surgeon it may have been problematic.

Good luck tomorrow! I don't have too many tips, you will do great. It's just a healing process that takes time to get through. I recommend you bring chapstick. My lips were so dry when I got out of there and I didn't have any. It was miserable. You need it right on your little tray so you can get to it without moving too much. I also recommend staying hydrated, and trying to get on your feet as quickly as you feel comfortable. Take it easy with food in the beginning.

good luck Kanva - enjoy that yummy hospital cuisine

and try not to dunk your nightie in the toilet like i did -

Good luck, we're all rooting for you and eager to hear about your progress! I bet you'll absolutely love the post-UC you, free of that giant ball and chain you've been dragging around for so long!

I hope your surgery goes well!

It is sometimes the first line of defence in UC, if your UC is putting your life in immediate danger. It's not the first line of defence in most cases though, as UC can be an unpredictable illness in terms of remission and relapse, and also how individuals respond to meds. If I could've stayed in long term remission on mesalazine alone, I would have preferred that to surgery.

In my case I failed everything up to infliximab and decided enough was enough. My j-pouch works really well (average 4-5 BMs a day, for example yesterday I didn't use the bathroom between 7.30am and 5.30pm, no urgency, and I sleep through the night) and my life feels really normal again. If someone could have told me after my diagnosis that I would spend four years flaring and failing meds, but that j-pouch life would be so normal, I would have chosen surgery right away... but nobody can tell you that. I'm sure if I had opted for surgery at diagnosis, I would have always wondered whether I might have responded well to meds and kept my colon.

You shouldn't feel guilty about your choice to have surgery. My first feeling after I woke up from my colectomy was one of victory: I had fought a hard battle to get my quality of life back and now - albeit by taking a pretty extreme measure - colitis was gone and I was still standing.

Kanva - hope your surgery went well; I'm sure you may not feel like talking/posting right away but please do let us know how you are doing. Apart from the soreness/pain from the surgery itself, and wrapping my mind around the fact that I had a bag hanging off my abdomen, I have to say that I felt so much better immediately, and it was such a relief not to have the Colitis symptoms anymore. I hope things go smoothly for you.

3timechamp - my surgeon at Mount Sinai was Dr. Alexander Greenstein; I highly recommend him. As far as the care at Mount Sinai - it was OK. Good hospital but nothing to write home about. Then again I would imagine it was better than many others. I can't stand staying in the hospital, but the nursing care was fine, they were very helpful. I was lucky enough to be in a private room for my second surgery, and that was much nicer than my first and third surgeries when I was in a regular room with noisy roommates. Besides never being able to sleep - hospitals may be a great place to recover but they are certainly not a place to heal - the doctors team that visited me each morning seemed to always be in a hurry; but then again that seems to be the standard for medical care these days.

A colostomy bag is temporary between the multi surgery process of getting a j-pouch. Once the j-pouch is ready, no bag is necessary as they poop normally. Step one removes the large intestine and installs a stoma and colostomy bag. A jpouch can be created during that 1st step or be its own separate second step depending on patient health. The jpouch is then attached in another surgery, stoma removed, and you're done. All you have is just a few cool scars to show off for your troubles. A jpouch is made of the small intestine and attached to the sphincter muscles. As uc is limited to the large intestine, uc is gone.

Some choose to keep their stoma and colostomy bag, or aren't candidates for jpouch. You get used to it, it's easy to conceal under most clothing, and you can swim with one.