Surgery date!

They want to do my surgery tomorrow! I am a little nervous. They told me I could go home for the weekend and come back Monday if I wanted but I want it done now. He told me he could do a three step or two step whichever I preferred (he recommended the 3 step because I have not had kids yet but I’m not worried about fertility just getting through school, I could always adopt.) I’m also afraid that the three step would be worse in the long run because the butt muscles might lose their ability to hold things in. I think I will go with the 2 step. One less procedure. I read about prepping for surgery and stuff but he never told me to do a prep? Just told me to think about it. He’s coming back in later today to explain more. But I made a new thread since the other got a little long and this will just be about the surgery updates! I’m so excited and nervous! Oh and my biopsies and blood work and all that came back and they said it is very unlikely I have Crohn’s!

You're muscles have had plenty of practice with UC, you'll be fine for 2-3 years without using them before any issues.

Personally I'd never choose to have surgery on a Friday because most of the doctors aren't around on the weekends, they have partners and residents covering for them. I remember one time I had a roommate at the hospital and he had surgery on a Friday, he was in pain all weekend long because no one wanted to go against the surgeon's standing orders for pain dosing.

I wouldn't have as much of a problem with a Friday surgery if the surgeon promised to visit me on a Saturday and Sunday.

How healthy are you? the combination 1 & 2 steps is a big surgery. I was so sick at the time that I couldn't of handled it very well. The 3rd surgery is very small (45 minutes). it's the j-pouch creation surgery that poses the small risks, you're going to have that risk in either number of surgeries that you go with.

ks1905 said...
I think you misunderstood his post, "is very unlikely I have Crohn’s". No crohns dectected

OH YES. That's fantastic. I read it the other way for some reason!!!!

I will delete that other post so as to not confuse.

Are you going to do it tomorrow? You will likely need to prep, but you have time.

Sorry, I did misunderstand. Good luck and keep us posted.

Congrats on the surgery date, time to put UC in the rear-view mirror and move on with your life. I'm sure you'll absolutely love the new UC-free you!

Two-step or three-step is an interesting question. Most of us end up with the three-step due to current steroid-use and biologic-use. Why? We heal slower and are at increased risk of infections. You can aim for the 2-step, and see what the surgeon is able to do once he/she operates. Just be warned you might wakeup and findout you necessitate a 3-step once they took a look.

Mak37 said...
They want to do my surgery tomorrow! I am a little nervous. They told me I could go home for the weekend and come back Monday if I wanted but I want it done now. He told me he could do a three step or two step whichever I preferred (he recommended the 3 step because I have not had kids yet but I’m not worried about fertility just getting through school, I could always adopt.) I’m also afraid that the three step would be worse in the long run because the butt muscles might lose their ability to hold things in. I think I will go with the 2 step. One less procedure. I read about prepping for surgery and stuff but he never told me to do a prep? Just told me to think about it. He’s coming back in later today to explain more. But I made a new thread since the other got a little long and this will just be about the surgery updates! I’m so excited and nervous! Oh and my biopsies and blood work and all that came back and they said it is very unlikely I have Crohn’s!

I personally wanted 2 steps. I ended up having 3 steps. The surgeon I went to preferred doing it in three steps... I consulted a different surgeon and she said she would do the surgery in two steps, but I went with the surgeon who did it in three because he had a lot more experience. I personally think two step is more common. I've seen a few people here having three steps, but not the majority. I don't think three steps has anything to do with the ability to hold things in though. I've never had any problems with leaking or ability to "hold it". I've seen people who do have these issues after surgery, but I don't think it has anything to do with the # of steps. Two steps is a lot faster to get through. It's just 8 weeks with the loop ileo. The three step is about 5 months. At least 12 weeks (end ileo) and 8 weeks (loop ileo). It takes quite a while to complete three steps. I wouldn't do one vs the other over the final result, the result in the end is the same. I'd consider three steps if there was good reason for it; If you're going into it very ill, if you're carrying a lot of prednisone weight, if you need a break and you want the individual recoveries to be a little easier. The end ileo is much better to deal with vs the loop. I couldn't relax a moment with my loop

Thank you Ipoop.. NSSG what type of prep did you have to do? They told me I just couldn’t put anything into my mouth after midnight.. I thought it would be something similar to a colonoscopy prep. They will probably tell me something different laterZ I will see if they have that option here 3timechamp, seems a lot easier than calling for a nurse every time as they have others to look after as well.

I had to do a regular colon prep, like you would do for a scope. Let us know what you find out!

They told me if I needed to do a prep it wouldn’t be until evening time. They also told me the surgery would happen around 11 am tomorrow. They let me know that it would be pretty rocky the first few days after surgery but that they think I will have a way better quality of life! I also have never had a healthy colon so I don’t know what pre UC days are so I don’t think I’ll have an issue with frequency when I finally do get takedown (my remission was going 7-8 times a day with urgency and pain). For some reason I am in quite a bit of pain right now, it went down yesterday but it’s back in full force again today so I am happy I’m finally moving forward.

I was given a morphine type pain reliever for surgery so the day of surgery was easy. That night I don't recall much pain Next day just had stomach spasms so they gave me muscle relaxant which only helped if I had any pain but I didn't have much. So wasn't to bad as far as pain for me. Good luck

Good luck Mak. I will be having surgery on Monday. Iv steriods not working or the extra loading dose of humira. Mine will also be 3 steps due to being on steriods for so long and the amount of inflammation i have. Doc said 3 steps will give me the best outcome. If he did 2 steps i would have a chance of the pouch not healing correctly.

You will be in my thoughts tomorrow.

I wouldn’t worry about the blood test, they’re not that reliable if it’s just one outlier test. If you’re in a bad flare and your MRE scan shows no small intestine involvement than I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

I think in hindsight after your 2nd surgery you’ll be happy that you are getting 3 steps instead of 2 steps. It sounds like you’re pretty sick.

Good luck

Hey Mak, how are you doing? Any news?