Hello, It's been about 3 years since my j-pouch surgery with Dr. Mowschenson at Beth Israel in Boston and overall it's been great! Aside from the colitis I was a healthy 34 year old going into surgery and I realize that attributes to my success with the it. I noticed that refined sugars and a lot of carbs were bringing on pouchitis, and if I focus on cutting those out I've felt great. Prior to taking a daily regiment (2 pills) of VSL#3 I ended up with pouchitis (cleared up with antibiotics) every few months or so but it has been kept at bay since. I even pick up running and ran a Half Marathon, something I never could have imagined while I had active ulcerative colitis. I was always too run down and tired to think about running 13.1 feet let alone 13.1 miles.
I spend a lot of time researching before I made the decision to go ahead with j-pouch surgery and this site was helpful for me to hear others experiences.