It can't be done for everyone, and it can't be done by everyone, but it definitely can be done--and if that's what your surgeon does, it would easily explain why he says that the surgery takes "all...
Is this guy, by chance, speaking of a laparoscopic procedure? I had mine done at Mayo (with good results), and the first step (of two) did take about six hours. And I think the rest of his work day...
82+ self-selected poll takers--especially on a site that many people find because they have problems--is not an adequate sample size for figuring out what you're trying to figure out. It's too small...
If they are talking about doing a straight ileorectal anastomosis or IRA (just attaching the small intestine to a tiny band of rectal tissue, with no j-pouch), the word on j-pouch.org (from people...
You have the right attitude: it is not acceptable. 1. I don't really know. Between 6 and 10. It's not urgent; feels more like pressure. I can and do hold it, so it doesn't disrupt my life. For...
I think it's great to start a new thread. The short answers, in case you or others return to this one, are: I had a two-stage surgery that was laparoscopic. It is by far the most important thing to...
I was in almost exactly your shoes: 33, had been sick for ten years, and was not looking forward to more of it. I had surgery in April. Today I ate when I felt like it and left my house whenever I...
When the colon is gone, the colitis is gone by definition. Some people have extra-intestinal manifestations of UC (eye and joint problems, etc). Those are not necessarily cured by colectomy, though...
I found the Organix website here: http://www.metametrix.com/content/Home/Main They've got information on their various proprietary tests, and what the results are supposed to suggest, a few pages...
What are you asking about pH? Here's why I ask: The more communication there is between any given body part in its natural state and the world outside the body, the more variability there is in a pH...
I don't know about vitamin K, but the most recent recommendation I've seen is that almost everyone north of Miami should be getting their vitamin D levels checked. It's common to absorb it badly if...
Plain water can be more harm than good; it washes the electrolytes right out of you if you're already in bad shape. I did well with Vitalyte: http://www.vitalytestore.com/ Lots of electrolytes; low...
To be fair, there's dispute on distilled water, with some in the "alternative" health community preferring it. But there is some good traditional-medicine evidence that its lack of trace minerals is...
I love orange juice watered down about half/half with water or seltzer and served over ice. It really cuts the acidity and is a much better thirst-quencher, because it's less sweet. Are you doing...
I had surgery just this year and had short recoveries both times (two-three weeks) and no food limitations beyond the usual post-surgery low-residue diet (four weeks each time). My surgeries were...
"Mucous colitis" is the old name for irritable bowel syndrome--you might venture over to that group for more info....
I would say two things. 1. You are not going to die during surgery. Colectomy for UC has a less than 1% mortality rate. So this is an irrational fear that is time-limited (because you'll wake up from...
Do you have UC or is it Crohn's? Because if it's UC, they shouldn't be taking "parts" out, and they won't need to take any other parts out later. It's a total proctocolectomy, removal of the whole...
I made a list of "things I'm looking forward to after the surgery." Most of those were experiences (like "sitting in a window seat on the airplane"), and it helped me as I went through the process to...
I'm sorry that I can't comment on the age-related questions you're raising. I'm (at 34) not particularly worried about ease of life for people who take care of me when I'm out of it--and I don't know...
It's pressure, not urgency. It was funny, actually--it had been so long since I'd had normal sensation there that I had to ask around to find out what regular people feel when they need to have bowel...
Ack. If you call his phone number now, no one picks up the phone at all? So weird. I am not a physician, but in your shoes, I held it at 40 for a couple more days. Four days in "gastroenterological...
Does your GI have anyone (a GI resident, for example) covering his phone line while he's out of the office?...
Is the itching in the anal area, or is it generalized? The first thing that came to my mind in a kid that age, if it's anal itching, is pinworms. It might not be related to the Hirschsprung's at all!...
Here's the scoop on the scars. I had my surgery laparoscopically, so they're fewer and smaller than they would be if you had a traditional open surgery. I have one scar where the stoma site was...
Hey sparkle, I replied to your post in the other thread. (psst--beartooth, the "j-pouch" is the thing made out of the small intestine. You do have it for life, if all goes well. What sparkle is...
I do have advice: have the surgery. I lost all of my 20s and my early 30s to this disease, and now--having had the surgery--I wish I'd understood enough about it to have it done about 15" after I was...
I think Wade (Wade, correct me if I'm wrong) was saying that he doesn't eat late (in settings like bowling) because he doesn't like having to get up in the middle of the night to empty the bag....
I get that part--I'm choosing not to have children myself. But in the interests of getting facts out there, a quick Google search revealed that there is currently no case *ever* recorded of an HIV-...
Debly, just a thought on treating the UC--precisely because you're likely to live a long time (and most of it very healthy!), you might want to think sooner or more seriously about surgery. I had a...
Just two quick things, not so much for Wade but for other lurkers who might be trying to decide between their options: On the 4-6 times a day thing: 1. it may be more but 2. even at that, for me it...
Wade, I had the j-pouch done in April and the reversal in early July. I was pretty well adapted to the ileostomy, but for me the j-pouch is better in the following ways: 1. No gear to cart around. I...
I have known many great nurses/nursing assistants, but the reality is that most who don't work as ET/WOC nurses don't know any more than the average person about taking care of an ostomy, or about...
nervouswife, you've got part of it on both counts. Having the surgery does not cause the liver problems. Often, they are detected near the time of the surgery because so much other testing is done...
Imuran can take longer to work, but it is a much better-studied drug. It's just been around longer--almost three times as long, actually. The side effects are much better described. But whichever GI...
What does your child's GI say? I am 34; had both steps of j-pouch surgery this year. I've been really satisfied with it. Young children (basically below 18) are reputed to do even better than adults...
The long-term effects of Imuran are way better documented than those of Remicade; it's a much older drug. I would definitely worry about the prednisone, though, and the question mark over the...
It's used at much higher doses in transplant patients than are typical for UC. I think the highest I've seen discussed for either is about 300 mg, though. I'd definitely ask your doctor about...
I'm a strong advocate for at least consulting with someone who does the surgery laparoscopically partly because the research on it in the last five years has established that there are clear...
Jackie, get the most experienced laparoscopic surgeon you can find and go for it. If my experience is any indication, you will not believe the difference in your life. I was out of work 2-3 weeks...
It does sound like you had a blockage, but I doubt it had anything to do with milk. Milk just looks that way coming out of an ostomy--it always did for me, and I never got obstructed. Drinking is key...
My experience was that the bloating was purely a post-surgical phenomenon; four months out, I have none of it. You will go a lot at first, although I didn't have much urgency (though I had my surgery...
It sounds like an anxiety attack....
It comes in 10, 5 and 1 mg strengths, too (and is dirt cheap in all of them). Maybe call your GI for advice and a prescription for lower-dose pills if you need them?...
Sorry, no experience in Remicade here. But the advice I got from both my GI and my endocrinologist was that splitting up prednisone doses is markedly more likely to produce adrenal suppression, which...
That sounds a lot like the salmonella I had last year. Neither I nor the health department could ever figure out what I might have eaten to give it to me, either (and I was part of a...
There's a lot of good anecdotal evidence that Imuran is safe during pregnancy; there's not much one way or the other on Humira. I had surgery and am on no meds, but I am planning to adopt. I cannot...
Definitely not Advil or flax oil (which is a laxative). Small-bowel inflammation in Crohn's is treated with prednisone, sometimes Entocort, Pentasa, and Remicade. But you may not have Crohn's; it's...
Exercise didn't help with my UC, but it did put me in much better shape to get through the surgeries. I was/am a regular lifter of very heavy weights and was back to work after two weeks the first...
If they could, there'd be a lot less drug use and surgery....