I am very excited! I was so scared today going in for my x-rays, but I got checked and everything is good to go for my take down. The doctor and I had already scheduled my surgery for the 24th, pending my check-up, because of a more or less failed stoma. That is to say it is just horribly wrong, which is a bummer since the first one was so good. I have a ½ inch ring of bleeding skin around my stoma site that burns whenever I have output, which lead me to not eat solid food for almost a week strait. I have lost almost 30lbs since my 2nd surgery, but at a speed which has really taken a toll on me. I just wanted to thank everyone on the site for all the insight that they have offered on this stuff and say that without the encouragement I have received from some of the local members I don't know how I would have gotten through all this mess.

Now I have to plan what will be the first thing to come out of my butt in 5 months. I am a vegetarian, so that limits my choices, and I understand that a lot of my favorites now might need to wait a while. From what I have read lettuce and mushrooms are wait for the pouch to mature things, and tomato stuff is a no go because of butt burn. So how does Mac & Cheese sound?

Mac and Cheese sounds great! You'll figure out pretty quickly what bothers you and what doesn't. Just keep something on hand for the dreaded but inevitable butt burn.
Congrats on having a date set for take down.

Tad - Great news on the go ahead for surgery. Hope things go well.
Mac and Cheese sounds great for first meal. Make sure you get some Calmoseptine cream for the butt burn. Get it at Costco. they order it in 1 day and it only costs 5.55 per tube. I got tubes of the stuff in each bathroom and at work.
Good Luck on the 24th!
David

I am back! Had a great hospital stay at Clarion North. The rooms are very nice. They have Internet in the rooms, big screen LCD's and large private rooms with big bathrooms, so considering I was in the hospital for an operation the stay was really nice. The operation went very well. I was done in an hour and a half. Could have been released on the 25th, but I wanted to stay to east some more food and see how I handled it. Dr. Robb was able to go through the stoma hole to do the takedown, so I didn't get chopped up again. I just have a hole where the stoma used to be. I am eating pasta w/ white or pesto sauces, mashed potato's and grilled cheese, but nothing beyond that. I figure over the next week I will introduce some more aggressive foods. Hopefully that goes as well as things have been going thus far. No butt burn so far, but the pouch is pretty loud when emptying.

Welcome home Tad. )

Sounds like you are doing really well. Glad you enjoyed your hospital stay, most of us just want to get out of there so the food must have been exceptionally good for you to want to stay for more!

Keep up the good work.

Shell