Hi,

I had stage 1 on June 23 2006, stage 2, on Sept 6...Right now I am suffering through what I hope is unrelated. I have stomach pain when i stand up, and it is tender, although not painful when lying down. I was wondering if anyone knew or had an opinion on whether it is J Pouch related. I am passing stool and its not at an abnormally high rate.

Thanks for the help.

I had similar pains after step 1 (colectomy, pouch creation and temp ileo creation). Turns out I had an abcess. If you're not running a fever, it could "just" be nerve endings. A lot of nerve endings cause pain for a while following the trauma of having such a major amputation. If you have a slight fever or feel generally unwell I'd suggest asking for a CT scan to check whether you have an infection brewing. I also had shallow infections in the main incision (about 4 or 5 in total). They never showed up under the skin until I was in complete agony, by which time I'd been complaining for ages and no-one believed me when I said that there must be an infection bubbling away in there. These things can be sneaky. Get it checked out and if it is just nerve endings, don't worry - they get better.

Thanks for the reply, I spoke with a nurse at the Mayo Clinic where I go, since its been 11 months since my pouch was created, she said it could be an abcess, but wouldnt expect it to be....it seems to be getting slightly better, although still in some pain. I assume an abcess would get continually worse, so I ll have to check back with them tomorrow.

Jonny,

Have you done anthing physical recently that would have stressed that area? I find that I still have pain/soreness after I'm real active (like days when I swim and / or mow the yard, etc.). I would have thought it would not be so prone to soreness at this point - but it still is. My first thought is that it's pouch cramping or something, but then I remind myself what I did the day before

As for the abcess, it could get better or worse. The telling sign there should be (as the nurse probably told you) whether or not you notice fever in the evening or morning (unless you are taking fever reducers for pain, in which case you might not notice a fever). Good luck.