I have had reasonable success coping with my pouch from about 2005-2009. At that point, I began to have difficulty trying to balance the choices I had to make in order to have a functioning mind/body vs those I had to make in order to continue a full-time teaching career. However at this point, I also met my life partner, who gave me all kinds of fantastic support. So I got a breather for a while. I think I felt less stressed because at least my personal life didn't suck; only my professional life.
For the last five years, however, I have experienced the fallout from some of my refusal to give in to my symptoms, which, as I read through these forums, are no different than those experienced by others with a J-pouch.
If I get all the liquid intake I need in order to stay hydrated, my constant headache disappears but I have to go to the bathroom almost constantly instead. This doesn't work well in a classroom.
If I eat all the foods that slow my bowel, I also gain weight extremely fast, which my heart doesn't like very much. My energy level depletes considerably. Also not good when you are teaching full-time. If I go on a Weight-Watcher diet (which I did), my weight goes back down but I don't get enough carbs and potassium to satisfy my digestive system.
If I don't eat past 4pm, I will almost invariably not awaken to go to the bathroom. I will, however, awaken because I am hungry. It is difficult to teach when you have either not slept at all or slept only fitfully. Ninety percent of the time, those are my only two choices. Again, you can't teach well when you haven't slept. I can count the number of times on one hand that I actually sleep more than three or four hours a night within a six month period. Sleep-deprived is an understatement. I have gone six or seven days in a row with no sleep at all at times. And gotten up and gone to work like that.
I have been taking Imodium daily for about a month now and notice only a slight difference in my output frequency. (And I wonder what the side-effects from taking Imodium daily will be in the long run? What new problems might that cause?) I still wake at least twice in the night to go to the bathroom. This is better than four times, but still not great. I pass solids anywhere from 8 to 12 times a day. This is fine in the summer and on the weekends, but not great during weekdays when my freedom to use the washroom is severely curtailed in a building which has only three private bathrooms within easy reach of my room to service about a hundred staff. At least half the time when I try to use a washroom, it's occupied.
Sleep deprivation, dehydration, difficulty with itchiness and bleeding, dry skin and constant headaches are only a few of the symptoms that are a daily occurrence. I am a pretty strong person. I dealt with all this for quite a while without feeling like I was overwhelmed. Now menopause has reared its ugly head and I find myself have even more difficulty. I can't sort out one set of symptoms from the other.
I find myself since September getting easily confused at work, forgetting things, being unable to retain the simplest bits of information and having difficulty with my anger. I have been placed in a new job for which I am radically unqualified but that's what the education world is like now. There are no jobs in my qualification area any more. Or not enough lines to give me full-time work. The new semester is started and I have no idea where my principal will place me now that I have proven unequal to the task he set for me in September.
I also find that there are times when I am standing in a classroom of teenagers and co-workers in which I have come precariously close to soiling myself in front of others. That will not change just because I had a stress leave. When I go back, it will be more of the same.
I am off on a stress leave now and enjoying the freedom to explore this site, find myself some advice on dietary changes that I can make and advice for getting better nutrition and sleep. However, none of it jives very well with trying to hold down a full-time teaching career in a position for which I am not qualified. I can see a future for myself where I can begin to get back some control over my sleep patterns, my diet and my digestive system, but none of it works when I place myself in the regimented school-bell driven schedule of a full-time teacher doing a job she's never done before. I am only four years from retirement. I have no intention of giving up a perfectly good career but I also do not want to watch myself become a laughing stock as I lose control over my own body and mind due to the constraints of living with a J-pouch while trying to learn a new job. The world of education is not a friendly place for someone who needs to put her bodily functions above her job.
If there are other teachers out there, or other professionals whose world is regulated by schedules, supervision and the inability to leave to use a bathroom when necessary, I would love to hear from you. What do you do that has helped? I would like to go back to work in March but right now, I am no further ahead in coming up with a dietary/sleeping pattern that would allow me to get the rest and nutrients I need to work productively than I was two weeks ago.
Drop me a line if you have any helpful suggestions.
Linda E.
For the last five years, however, I have experienced the fallout from some of my refusal to give in to my symptoms, which, as I read through these forums, are no different than those experienced by others with a J-pouch.
If I get all the liquid intake I need in order to stay hydrated, my constant headache disappears but I have to go to the bathroom almost constantly instead. This doesn't work well in a classroom.
If I eat all the foods that slow my bowel, I also gain weight extremely fast, which my heart doesn't like very much. My energy level depletes considerably. Also not good when you are teaching full-time. If I go on a Weight-Watcher diet (which I did), my weight goes back down but I don't get enough carbs and potassium to satisfy my digestive system.
If I don't eat past 4pm, I will almost invariably not awaken to go to the bathroom. I will, however, awaken because I am hungry. It is difficult to teach when you have either not slept at all or slept only fitfully. Ninety percent of the time, those are my only two choices. Again, you can't teach well when you haven't slept. I can count the number of times on one hand that I actually sleep more than three or four hours a night within a six month period. Sleep-deprived is an understatement. I have gone six or seven days in a row with no sleep at all at times. And gotten up and gone to work like that.
I have been taking Imodium daily for about a month now and notice only a slight difference in my output frequency. (And I wonder what the side-effects from taking Imodium daily will be in the long run? What new problems might that cause?) I still wake at least twice in the night to go to the bathroom. This is better than four times, but still not great. I pass solids anywhere from 8 to 12 times a day. This is fine in the summer and on the weekends, but not great during weekdays when my freedom to use the washroom is severely curtailed in a building which has only three private bathrooms within easy reach of my room to service about a hundred staff. At least half the time when I try to use a washroom, it's occupied.
Sleep deprivation, dehydration, difficulty with itchiness and bleeding, dry skin and constant headaches are only a few of the symptoms that are a daily occurrence. I am a pretty strong person. I dealt with all this for quite a while without feeling like I was overwhelmed. Now menopause has reared its ugly head and I find myself have even more difficulty. I can't sort out one set of symptoms from the other.
I find myself since September getting easily confused at work, forgetting things, being unable to retain the simplest bits of information and having difficulty with my anger. I have been placed in a new job for which I am radically unqualified but that's what the education world is like now. There are no jobs in my qualification area any more. Or not enough lines to give me full-time work. The new semester is started and I have no idea where my principal will place me now that I have proven unequal to the task he set for me in September.
I also find that there are times when I am standing in a classroom of teenagers and co-workers in which I have come precariously close to soiling myself in front of others. That will not change just because I had a stress leave. When I go back, it will be more of the same.
I am off on a stress leave now and enjoying the freedom to explore this site, find myself some advice on dietary changes that I can make and advice for getting better nutrition and sleep. However, none of it jives very well with trying to hold down a full-time teaching career in a position for which I am not qualified. I can see a future for myself where I can begin to get back some control over my sleep patterns, my diet and my digestive system, but none of it works when I place myself in the regimented school-bell driven schedule of a full-time teacher doing a job she's never done before. I am only four years from retirement. I have no intention of giving up a perfectly good career but I also do not want to watch myself become a laughing stock as I lose control over my own body and mind due to the constraints of living with a J-pouch while trying to learn a new job. The world of education is not a friendly place for someone who needs to put her bodily functions above her job.
If there are other teachers out there, or other professionals whose world is regulated by schedules, supervision and the inability to leave to use a bathroom when necessary, I would love to hear from you. What do you do that has helped? I would like to go back to work in March but right now, I am no further ahead in coming up with a dietary/sleeping pattern that would allow me to get the rest and nutrients I need to work productively than I was two weeks ago.
Drop me a line if you have any helpful suggestions.
Linda E.
