Long-term outlook

I only take Tylenol.......stay away from NSAIDS.

As for not lifting over 25 pounds, that's crazy. I've NEVER heard that or why. Obviously if your fresh out of surgery, you need to give your body time to heal and that makes sense, but, this far out from surgery.......not logical and makes no sense!

Is there something else going on?

This comes up every few months... Dr Shen has definitely been telling lots of j-pouch patients to never lift more than 25 lb. As far as I know no one has ever gotten him to elaborate on his reasoning (at least, nothing has ever been posted here).

I have read that about Shen and the lifting thing from other members here as well. Sounds ridiculous to me.

My sister's j pouch is a little older than yours and still going strong. Pretty sure over all these years she's lifted things heavier than 25 pounds....like her son when he was little!

I'd be very curious what his "reasons" are for no lifting over 25#. I've NEVER heard that, ever. It makes no sense. Good lord, I've been lifting well over 4 times that amount for the past 10 years and have NO issues!

I'd really like to hear what his "reasons" are.......from what I "know" of Shen, he's a solid doctor but that makes NO logical sense at all.

I am going to give a rather un-medical response to the question of how much pouchers can or cannot lift.
I have a k pouch (predecessor of the J pouch with a stoma/valve that exits low on the abdomen)...I have had my pouch for almost 35yrs.
When my pouch was built my surgeon gave me very few instructions on the day-to-day care and maintenance...it was all common sense and a few do's and don'ts like always use lube to intubate my pouch ( I gave that up by yr 2...big mistake) and don't lift heavy weights (I was a power lifter before pouch surgery) so I blissfully disregarded almost everything that I was told once I felt better.
I moved here and lived in a 8 storey walk-up with no elevator in the building and me carrying all of my furniture, groceries etc up and down those stairs for 3 yrs..then the other apt with a 3 storey walk-up for 20 yrs.
I walked miles to and from the farmer's market with all of my groceries in bags hanging off of my hands, arm and shoulders...
I was invincible...then I ended up with the 1st of 6 hernias..It was over 20yrs post pouch but still, once it started it never stopped...hernia after hernia..rip after rip of the abdominal wall.
The fact is that Some of us are more fragile than others and some are stronger Now...but...and here is the but...we all get older and age even if we do not feel like we do...and our bodies age even if we don't notice it and that is when the "rules" matter. What you do or did when you are/were young does have an effect on you and your pouch as you get older.
I believed that once my pouch was healed the problems were over and done with...it never occurred to me that all of that carrying and lifting that I thought was building muscle and making me stronger was actually, at some level, hurting my pouch over time.
You may be one of the lucky ones and never have a problem but you may be one of those who gets more fragile over the years and have problems.
This is just experience talking and not a medical opinion.
Sharon

why did he say to stop the testosterone? i need it because my levels are at zero without it...

There is a difference between restoring normal testosterone levels, and using it to boost performance and/or for body building.

The former is prescribed for a medical condition, the latter is not a sanctioned use, but common in the body building/sports enhancement field. Long term use in this way leads to damaging effects.

As for the lifting, Dr. Shen has seen pouch rupture associated with lifting in his clinic. But, I have not seen documentation noting this extreme lifting admonition in the literature. Time will tell, I suppose.

Jan

thanks jan!