surgery monday

I can't answer any of your questions, but I want to wish you well on Monday!

I think the bar thing is a yes. It's not something you would know about though, unless you really feel around. The loop, for me, was a pain in the butt, but it does resolve any lingering proctitis issues you may be having. The 2nd step for me, wasn't as hard to recover from. It's a big procedure, and it can be difficult, but I went into it healthier, and I healed faster. After step 2, transit is faster. My loop never functioned in a way where i was able to live comfortably. It was always stressful for me, very needy, none of the supplies worked well. I couldn't wait to reverse, but it was only 7-8 weeks from loop to reversal. You will do great & you're almost done. Once you're through step 2, it's literally 8 weeks and a 1-2 hour procedure until you're reconnected & free of supplies.

The bar was in for 3-4 days, it was at the opening of my ostomy. They had it in place with a few stitches, you don't feel it when they remove the bar, there are no nerves there.

Ask for convex wafers for your ostomy supplies, they are EXTREMELY helping with the loop ostomy. They put a flat wafer on me in the surgery, a day later it was leaking. I would also recommend buying ostomy supply accessories like a belt, barrier sheets (they are great) and barrier strips. I found the accessories to be necessary because the loop puts out more output. Once I had the correct setup for me then things went pretty smoothly.

It's a larger surgery, you'll be in there about twice as long as your colectomy surgery. Mine surgery was about 7 hours and my colectomy surgery was 4 hours.

I still had output from my rectum after my Loop ileo. I did not have blood or cuffitis at either step.

Glad you are doing welll. Hope the gas subsides quickly, it is amazing how painful that is.

Congratulations on step one.....hope you have a smooth recovery.

q