I am so excited to actually be writing this post.

My takedown is June 16 and I have two questions:

What supplies should I take to the hospital?

And what supplies should I have on hand at home for my recovery?

Thanks so much for any replies!

I don't think you need ANYTHING! Your days of "supplies" are over. Congratulations! You will be in hospital a few days and feel a million persent better in a couple weks. This is a much. much easier operation;shorter, easier. You are now out of the woods my friend!

Dear Mark,

Thanks so much for your cheerful post! It made my day.

I agree with Mark. Here was my list of supplies, the big thing is probably soft TP, and hinny creams in case your skin gets sore.

http://ucstory.wordpress.com/surgery-3-jpouch-or-takedown-surgery/

My takedown was April 14th and my supplies that go with me always are:

sugarless gum (to have when I was NPO--ask surgeon first)
Charmin soft toilet paper
Calmoseptine
squirt water bottle (to clean bum to lessen wiping)
good book
slippers & robe (do a lot of walking)
ipod
cell phone (I live out of state of hospital and needed to make long distance calls)

I couldn't believe how much more energy I had after that surgery, but was sore by incision for about 4 weeks. I went back to work last week, but was doing a lot around the house after surgery (preparing for son's upcoming graduation party/spring cleaning). Hope that all goes well for your surgery!

Dear Mark and Megan,

Thanks for the great tips, and thanks for sharing your wonderful blog. Yours is an inspiring story!

Dear Theresa,

Thank you for your must-have list and good wishes. With all this great help, I'm looking forward to takedown.

I agree with the above. The blue package of Charmin mega roll works best for me. I only used balmex cream, but any diaper rash cream should work. I'd bring a robe and slippers or at least socks too. I stocked up at home with baby wipes with no alcohol but never used them. I ate a lot of dry corn chex and soda crackers at first at home. Also maybe buy some chewable gas-x. My belly was uncomfortable at first! Best of luck to you!!

I took calmoseptine with me to the hospital for the burning, and my ipod, and some books.

Good Luck, and I hope you have an easy surgery and a quick recovery.

janna

Good luck with the surgery! You must be looking forward to it. I would bring everything that has already been posted. TP, creams, pads, books, robe, slippers. Ask for a commode, if you can get a private room (I was lucky). I went to the bathroom very often initially.
I know this sound weird, but I read this on this site and it helped me to a great degree. I could NOT go for a while after the operation. It was messy (if you know what I mean), but I didnt care. I just wanted to go, so I could go home. I rocked back and forth on my hands and knees, and it got everything moving. I was thankfully wearing a pad. If you lay on your right side, it helps to move gas, etc. along too! Maybe things will go smoother, and you might not have to worry about all that. Just my 2 cents.

Good luck again.

Good luck Rudolph!

The surgery itself should be a piece of cake. I just had a loop ileostomy takedown a few days ago (May 16) and was discharged from the hospital on the morning of the 18th (and hit a few putts on the golf course yesterday). Didn't have to put up with any catheter in the hospital this time . Felt very little discomfort from the surgery.

My surgeon actually prefers to leave the ileostomy wound open and let it heal up from the inside out (about 3 week process to close up). The only thing a bit "gross" is changing the gauze that goes in there twice a day and sticking it down a hole about 1/2 finger deep.

My circumstances are a bit different than most here (issue was rectal cancer with a resulting TME/straight line coloanal anastomosis done last August at the Cleveland Clinic).

The main issue you'll probably deal with is bowel movement issues (like minimizing butt burn) and I'm thankful for the recommendations like Ilex and other creams found on this site. Also thankful that I'm at home with a hand-held shower head (has a setting for a strong central stream) basically used as a bidet that results in quick total cleansing with no wiping which is a big help avoiding irritation.

Diet right now is heavy on stuff like oatmeal for breakfast, rice, noodles, bananas, apple sauce, toast along with other "soft diet" guidelines and I'm not having too many problems right now (in particular, no problems making it through the night without getting up to run to the bathroom). On a pretty short fuse as far as making it to the bathroom when needing to go during the day, but this is going to be a multi-month process (optimistic about where things are now only a few days out)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SteveB,