I felt the same way. Now, 10+ years later, I know I made the right decision to go forward. Best wishes for a smooth transition!

I wondered if I had made a mistake too. Questioning my choice before the surgery and for a couple of months after it, mostly because of the unknown. Now 3 months later I know I made the right choice. I recently went back to work full time, just finished my first week! And I'm happy to say that last night was the first time, since surgery, that I slept straight through the night without having to visit the bathroom, hopefully it wasn't a one off The best advice I can give is be positive and know that it will all be better soon.

Dew- it's a big decision. I had my ileostomy closed last month, and am working on getting my output to be less liquid, more comfortable, and so on. Putting the pouch into service is definitely a lot of work. I guess the questions is, how satisfied are you living with an ostomy? If it's working well, and doesn't bother you, nor prevent you from doing the things your life requires, then maybe you don't need to have the closure surgery. If the ileo is a tremendous pain in the a** and makes you sad, then the costs of using the pouch may be reasonable.

My work pretty much requires that I don't have the bag hanging off of me, as climbing trees and lifting a lot of weight is hard when you're always watching the ostomy bag. And I'm not ready to retire. But getting used to the j-pouch is a big hassle as well, and will take some time. BTW, I'm on my second pouch in 16 years, so I have some experience living with one.

Who is you surgeon?

Thanks for the encouragement. Had surgery last night and all went well. Now just waiting for some movement

Speedy recovery, Dew. When I got my pouch I figured I'd call it successful if I could just have two years of not being sick and not wearing a bag. That was ten years ago. I have never regretted the decision. My worst day with pouchitis is better than any day before the surgery.

Congratulations! I hope everything wakes up and you can go home soon!

Congrats! You will NOT regret it a bit. I DOES take some time, as you know. For me...a bit longer. Even with that (pouchitis,complications,etc.) it was well worth it. Going on 6 years for me now. I'm more active than ever and living life to it's fullest. I wish you the same. Just know that it will take some time for your body to adjust. My top recommendation...get a bidet seat. I know it sounds weird, but it saved my life and well worth the investment.