Hello, my name is Jonathan I am 24 years old and after 11 years of suffering endless flare-ups from Ulcerative Colitis I recently decided to have the jpouch operations done at UCSD Medical Center in San Diego, California in three stages.

I went into the surgery relatively healthy however I was on a high dose of steroids that I was never able to succesfully taper off of and had already tried remicade and at this point I was done with fighting the disease.

Anyways, I have noticed from other posts you have made that you have had great results with your jpouch and have not experienced a lot of problems with pouchitis and that its way better being med free without a colon than sick and grossly medicated. I was wondering if you could give me your best advice on dieting, and eating schedule etc. Ways to prevent pouchitis and how you detoxified your system after years of colitis medications. Basically any info you can give me to help make the Jpouch function properly I would greatly appreciate.

My Surgeon quoted me that 95% of people are happy with their jpouches and have them long term. I currently have the temporary illeostomy bag and the prospect of ever having to go back to this horrifies me. I would rather go for a T-pouch or BCIR if it ever came down to that. I a VERY active person but I have not done anything physical with this bag attached to me and its very irritating.

I would appreciate any advise you may have for me as I am having the Jpouch formed on December 14th and will have the takedown shortly after.

You can also email me at jpaint44@gmail.com

I hope you are doing well

Yes, I consider my jpouch surgery a success and give all the credit to my surgeon. I really believe that having an experienced jpouch surgeon was the key to my success. I don't have a special diet, and I can eat anything. However, I prefer a diet that is high in fresh fruit and dairy products; that's how I ate pre-surgery too. I also don't have an eating schedule; I eat when I'm hungry.

Yes, I am very physically active but was not so much when I had my ostomy due to leakage and painful skin issues. With my jpouch I have accomplished many international hikes in the range of 100-200 miles, traveled abroad extensively, hiked the John Muir Trail, hiked in and out of the Grand Canyon and backpacked in the Sierras. The jpouch has allowed me to pursue these endeavors with relative ease.

I have only had pouchitis once in the almost 11 years with a jpouch, and that was in year 7. I do take probiotics daily but I'm not sure if that contributes to fewer incidents of pouchitis. The best advice I can give you for now is to be patient with the recovery process. I struggled more after the reversal surgery than I did with the colectomy. Adapting to food and high frequency were my biggest problems. It takes time for the jpouch to learn its job. Expect recovery in weeks, not days. Be sure to walk; walking is key to recovery.

Sue

Suebear, what type of complications did you have with reversal. And what did you do about that?

I did not have complications post surgery, I just had difficulty adapting to food.

Sue

Suebear,
What probiotics do you take? I've been thinking about starting to take them but don't know which one would be best.

Over the years I have taken PB-8, Culutrelle, Flora-Q, and Risaquad. For the past couple of years I have been taking Align.

Sue