UC is a “relapsing/remitting” disease. It comes and goes for most people without an identifiable cause, but the human mind is eager to try to make sense out of the pattern. There is surely a causal process, but it’s operating obscurely at the cellular and molecular level, largely indifferent to our coarse actions and unreliably responsive to treatment. We imagine dietary causes, miracle cures, behavioral and mood effects, etc., because being a leaf in the wind is uncomfortable, and because the comings and goings of the disease seem like they have to be related to other events that we perceive. But we are all essentially leaves in the wind as far as the ebbs and flows of UC are concerned.

Remission is the very best time to have J-pouch surgery. Your gut will heal better, your skin will heal better, and your strength will return faster. Remission makes us fantasize about the possibility that the disease is gone forever, but the cancer risk keeps increasing year by year.

I hope all goes well for you. J-pouch surgery is a hard road, and you need to be prepared for potholes that you can’t see until you hit them, but for most people who have severe flares it’s better than a UC-afflicted colon.

Wow, that was incredibly straight forward and exactly what I needed to hear.  Who am I kidding - this sh*t ain't going away! No pun intended ...