Hi everyone,

I'm just recovering from step 1 of j-pouch surgery, which I had 11 days ago, they let me go home a couple of days ago. I had the surgery done laparoscopically at st marks hospital in England. It wasn't all plain sailing though, I seemed to have an infection in the pouch as there was a white pus discharge in the drainage. This seems to be better now as they gave me some antibiotics. Does anyone know if this can affect my chances of having a sucessful j-pouch? Just a bit worried as I've had complications.

Right now i'm just trying to come to terms with the temporary ileostomy. I'm getting a lot of stomach cramps, which also seem to be affecting the pouch, but I think these will dissapear soon.

Fazz

My 1st surgery was in August and I've been told it's normal to have a discharge from your rectum that has mucous and blood in it. As for your stomach cramps make sure that you are chewing your food really well and sticking to a low residue diet and gradually add foods to see what can be tolerated. Some might give you problems at first but don't bother you at a later date. And drink drink plenty of water.

I understand how you feel about the ileostomy, I didn't want to change the wafer because I didn't want to look at it, but you will get used to it and believe it or not, there will be times during the day that you won't even think about the bag. Try to build your strength back up and recover from your surgery and know that you are not alone and this is a great place to meet others like yourself and get questions answered.