Surgery coming up on Monday

11 years and taking the meds that were available, they all no longer work, it's time for the surgery. It's either 2 or 3 process depeding on how my anus looks. I'm really scared about this surgery. Please pray for me that this surgery will come out okay.

I thought that surgery was going to be really tough but it was actually easier than I expected, one of my biggest problems was getting off of steroids and the withdrawal after being on them for 7 months.

I actually felt much better after I woke up from my colectomy; I did have some pain but I finally felt healthy again.

All the pain was very manageable. And living with a temporary ostomy isn't as bad as people expect. There is a learning curve but it is definitely something that you can do after a couple of changes with the help of the nurse.

If you only need a 2-step surgery the type of ostomy that you get (loop ileo) is a little more difficult to manage because of the output is higher and more liquid.

Good luck on Monday.

If your colon hasn't cooperated in that time on so many medications then it's time for an eviction. Good luck toughkicker. I hope it goes smoothly and you have a quick recovery. I bet you'll love the new uc-free you.

07kr5 said...


I don't think I would ever say this, but I kind of regret I didn't have this surgery earlier (and my UC symptoms were fairly small, the main reason I finally had surgery was due to dysplasia findings). I am actually now thinking about whether or not I want to go through with the next steps of creating a j-pouch, since I am terrified of it failing. To me that seems worse than having UC again. I will probably go through with it eventually, since there are certain things I still feel is a bit uncomfortable with the ileostomy, and I think I would always wonder "what if...", but overall it is sooo much better than I expected.

I also wish I had surgery sooner. I lost a lot of time and money struggling with UC... I was in the same boat, wondering if I should actually move forward with the next steps. The reality is, you don't know how it's going to work out for you. in my case, I am very thankful I stuck it out. Also, even if you stay with the ileo, there is still another step to remove the rectum. No matter how you go about it, you would be looking at one more procedure. I guess you could keep the rectum as long as you want, if it doesn't bother you. Some people get UC symptoms, mine were extremely mild when it wasn't connected - pretty much one trip to the bathroom in the AM and that's all. Some people have symptoms so severe, it's a struggle to get from step 1 to step 2 due to proctitis flaring up. I have a friend who used to post here, embersglow, she was in the process to gt a j-pouch and decided not to have the steps following the ileo. She made it permanent because of the proctitis symptoms she couldn't tolerate, but she saw how easy it was to manage the ileo and saw no reason to move forward. She's done extremely well... The ileo is really the most logical path, it preserves the most of the TI, it guarantees no pouchitis... There are a lot of positives. The negative is having a ileo - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, depends how you feel about it.

Its been a long tough go for you.....and having surgery sounds to be the solution for you to move on without UC.

Hoping all goes smoothly with no setbacks. You have a lot of amazing support from those who have been through it...with varied experiences. I have rarely heard any regrets.

Please keep us updated on how you are doing after surgery.
Healing thoughts sent your way,
q

I got a question......Do they give you something to relax you before they do the surgery?

I don't remember them giving me anything. They pretty much hook you up to an IV, you speak with your surgeon and the anesthesiologist, then, when they wheel you, they give you something. I think the anesthesiologist was there with the surgical nurse wheeling me and the surgeon went to prep in the OR - he was ready and waiting when I got there. For step one, I was asleep before I even got into the OR. I am not sure if they administered anything beyond the normal meds they give you to relax but I guess I was tired. Step 3, I was up and loopy from the drugs. I said Hi and cracked some stupid jokes in the OR, next thing I remember is waking up. The pain when I woke up was a lot initially, mostly just cramping, but they gave me a strong muscle relaxer right away and managed my pain. After that I needed tons of sleep but they monitor you pretty closely so it's really hard to get rested. You also have a catheter so you don't have to move initially, but it's good to start moving, and learning to get up. The sooner you can do that, the sooner you can get out of there. I was in for 5 days after step 1 but I could have probably left after 3 if I wanted to rush. I never took pain pills at home after any of the steps - I just took muscle relaxers.

Best of luck. Please keep us updated.