I am so confused now- to surgery to not? to bag or jpouch? life decisions. :(

Attended my first ostomy support group last night and now I have tons of questions. It was great for me to go and I'll definitely be attending next months meeting. But in the mean time here are my thoughts/questions:

1) I didn't realize the jpouch had a shelf life- 20 years maybe. Was told to ask my surgeon. Anyone have any insight on this?

2) that then makes me question if I should just get a permanent bag? Is a 2-3 part surgery worth having to go back in 10-20 years for another surgery?

3) complications-- almost 25% of first surgeries result in pouchitis. And she told me to ask about stonisis or something like that? Being that I've had such a difficult time with drugs and my body seems resistant to everything- I feel like I would fall into that percentage of people that will have complications.

Ugh so much to think about now. I am actually starting to feel better. My side effects are worse than my colitis. In fact, I have had 5 green days in a row. So something is working.

Is it even worth it to have surgery now?
Do I want to not have surgery and then risk going back to work and always worried about having another flare?
Or do I want to follow through with surgery and take the colitis out forever?

Guess its time to sit and write out all the pros and cons of everything. :/

do you have to work ? can you take 6 months off ?

what works best for me is to give myself a time frame to work in - say give it until end of this school year to try and find a non-surgery fix - if you're not there by june 1st, give the j or bag the green light -

There is a lot of mis-information out there about J-pouches especially from the "1st generation" j-pouches from the 80's and 90's. The outcomes of the more recent operations are much better.

Your surgeon should be able to clear up a lot of your confusion with these questions. My only advice is to find one of the most experienced J-pouch surgeons in your area, most people will agree with that. These are not easy surgeries but most people with UC are happy with the outcomes of surgeries.