I had my follow-up for my take-down surgery with my surgeon today, and all went very well. I had two staples on each end of my incision/stoma site, and those came out today. My open wound is healing nicely, but it's still open enough that I need to keep changing the packing in it twice a day. As long as everything continues to go well I do not have to go back until next year when we'll start yearly scopes of the pouch.
I did get confirmation on the questions bootstrap asked me. My surgeon did not strip my rectal cuff as I had thought, and he left 2 cm of my cuff in place. I thought that is what he had told me he planned on leaving before, so now I can confirm it.
I've become a little braver with foods since the weekend, and it's not having any affect on my stool output unless I eat a lot...input produces output. I even ate a salad this weekend. I was very careful to chew, chew, chew, and I couldn't tell I had eaten it based on what my stool looked like, and I didn't have any more urgency or frequency after eating it either. That was a big win for me because I love salads. However, I am noticing if I eat after a certain time (usually 5pm) it needs to be a tiny snack or else my nights have more gas than usual.
Gas has been my only bugaboo since the surgery, and it was only one night that it really gave me trouble. I think it was because I ate a big dinner late that night. I do notice more trouble with it at night than during the day, and so I'm still experimenting with what works best to calm the gas down at night. For me, Gas-X didn't seem to work, but Pepto does seem to help some, but not super satisfied with the Pepto's job either. Today I took Bentyl a couple of times (I already take Lomotil first thing in the morning), and I'm debating about taking another Bentyl tonight right before bed. I also bought Immodium today, and I'll experiment with that, too. I know it's just a matter of time between my pouch getting more functional time under its belt, diet, and figuring out what med routine works best for me before the gas issue gets resolved. Thankfully it's not been too bad, and I sleep relatively well.
I went for a two mile walk yesterday, and three miles today. I hope to start running next week since my surgeon said I could. He just doesn't want me lifting until I'm 6 weeks out. I'll take the runs easy (about the only pace I have right now) and short to start, and I'll post again once I start running to let the other runners on here know how that works out for me.
I hope you are all doing well tonight. God Bless.
Original Post