Surgery Question

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone on here had Jpouch surgery?

If so how long does it take?

I'm not sure I will go for the pouch and I might just stick with the colostomy. This is because Ive heard bad stories about the pouch such as pouchtits.

I used to be in Remission with Mezavant for 5 years but then I had a stressful situation ended up on Antibiotics and ended up in a major flare and was hospitalised.

I used to have proctitis but now have sever left sided colitis. I was also put on Azathioprine along with Mezavant and did well after my hospitalisation for about a year but a week ago I started to flare. I got bloods done and I actually wanted the steroids but the GPs said my blood work was not bad enough to have them.

I don't want to go on biologics and am thinking maybe I'll go down the surgery route.

How long does it take to get the first surgery?

This is also a controversial question. Has anyone used nicotine patches to remmission their Ulcerative Colitis? I met a cryropractor who said he had Ulcerative Colitis and he used nicotine patches to remission. Has anyone else used these?

Thanks everyone

Hi straydog,

I live in the UK and I am seeing a specialist IBD nurse too, as well as my GP. They both said my bloods were not bad enough for steroids. The IBD specialist wants a stool sample which I have to give on Monday.

I'm just afraid of biologics. Someone I work with has had the surgery and she is doing well and is on no meds. She had 1 biologic fail.

This is covered on the NHS so we don't have to worry about insurance. It's just last year my flare was so bad they said I might need emergency surgery but luckily Azathioprine and Mezavant worked, but now I'm having problems again, so I was thinking about surgery. I'm not entirely sure they will let me to be honest but I want to find out more about it.

I'm nearly 44, 44 in November so I am older and don't know if I will handle it as well as the person I work with.

Thanks for replying

Ps I would also consider 44 to be quite young for surgery, assuming you're generally in good shape otherwise.
If 3 time champ is around he had surgery age 60 (i think?) and is doing great

Why would you choose surgery before attempting biologic medication or even steroids? Biologics like Remicade are extremely safe. I'm shocked your doctor would even consider surgery before trying biologics.

And you do realize that even with surgery you can STILL experience UC symptoms?

I chose surgery before remicade or humira bc they lower your immunity and I don’t have a spleen and I was in late 50s. My gastro and Surgeon agreed. All the above contribute to lower your immunity which isn’t good in this day and age (I had Corona in March so what would of happened if I was on a biological??). Tough choice but I made the right choice. Had surgeries in ‘18 and life is beyond good compared to anxiety of 32 yrs with UC. Hope the best for u all

Hi Ruby,
I had my (1st of 3) j-pouch surgeries in February 2018. Before surgery I was in really rough shape and had no luck with medication (even prednisone). Because of my cancer history, my Dr’s steered me away from most the biologics. They put me on Entyvio because it was considered safer. Unfortunately, after several infusions/ months, I saw no improvement. By the time they told me Entyvio had failed, I was so sick I was almost looking forward to surgery. Most people have good results with biologics and go into a sweet remission with them. While my life is a thousand times better now then when I was suffering with UC, I’m glad I at least tried biologics before deciding to go forward with surgery. All of us have to make our own choice. I would just recommend getting as educated as you can about all your options. That might include finding a really qualified surgeon to talk to.

I think she mistyped. You can't have a colostomy with uc surgery. A colostomy comes from the colon and uc surgery removes the colon.