Hi everyone, now I've read your comments on the end vs loop illeostomy, I'm going to request an end. It sounds way easier than the loop, which was a pain in the butt!!!! I see the specialist in 2 months, he wants me to think about it, but lately its been hell, the pain and constant bathroom visits, I just wanna get back to being painfree. Thanks for your help!! Heather

Hi Porsche22, sorry to hear about your allergies to pain med, and hope you're dealing with it all okay. I just wanted to tell you that my neighbour is allergic to EVERYTHING you could think of, pain meds, and just living in the 21st century. I know she saw an allergy specialist and had testing with sublingual drops, blood and skin tests. Now she has to have sublingual drops just to live alongside everything in this world. She had drops to compate car exhaust fumes, organophosphates, the list is endless. The only painkiller she can tolerate is half a panadol, and she has alot of pain, Lupus, non-infectious TB, and I can't remember the list as its endless. Anyway she said the best way to deal with all the pain is accupunture. Seriously have you tried it, her and her husband swear by it. She sees a specialist GP, has a few sessions and is pain free for months, she has just about talked me into it. Anyway, I just thought i'd let you know about another possible way of pain relief. Good luck, Heather

Hey Tary, Girls,
First off I do so understand the vainty thing..I have been fighting with it all of my life and that is why I had fought so hard to get my K pouch when I was 18...at the time I just couldn't imagine have an appliance after all of the years of hell...
I am very vain (not particularly beautiful...just vain ) I figure with all of the scars and deformations plus the newly discovered lumpy flab (thank you menopause!) I need to hang on to something that makes me feel less selfconscious...Tary..ask your dr about a k pouch..it can be a real option for a failed J pouch and you no longer have to worry about tons of the other problems like butt burn and 40 trips a day to the loo....there are quite a few places in the states and Canada that do them and they are covered by insurance...
By the way...I wore my first bikini ever at the age of 40...with my huge median scar plus tons of smaller ones(and my stoma popped out every now and then...hubby would blush and then go all white!...I just figured that it was now or never..am 50 this year and so glad I did..
Some of us need the vainity to just get out of bed in the morning...I am one of them...that is why I wear nice lingerie..makes me feel pretty...and it hides what I don't want to show (or look at!)
Check out the K pouch section here if you have any questions...
Sharon