Hi guys,
Just popping in to give an update/ask a few questions. I posted a couple of threads after my first operation approx 5-7 weeks ago, thought I would do the same after my second.
I had my robotic assisted j pouch creation proceedure 7 days ago. I woke up in recovery approx 6 hours after going into surgery. I had a reasonable amount of pain, however a fair bit of it seemed to be associated with my catheter which was amazingly uncomfortable in certain positions.
I slept through the night and was up walking/showered the next morning. I ate soft foods/liquids for 36 hours after the operation. In terms of pain management, I had a morphine PCA post-op, then oral endone/oxy from approx 48 hours afterwards. In the last couple of days I've been taking generic painkillers, with the occasional endone.
My surgeon was happy for me to head home on the morning of the 5th day after the operation. I felt confident heading home at this point as I was taking everything I needed to go orally, and had no troubles drinking, eating etc.
After returning home I slept through most of the day. I awoke at about 6pm to probably the worst headache I've ever experienced in my life and intense nausea. After a call to the hospital I was taken back to their ER department. Luckily my surgeon was on call, and after a quick review and CT scan of my guts (to check if the pouch has disconnected/look for blockages) I was given IV steroids and checked back into the ward. The next day was fairly bumpy with less intense, yet similar symptoms. The doc's are unsure as to what caused my symptoms, however their best guess is that it was associated with steroid withdrawal. Scary stuff that prednisolone..
On the morning of the second morning of my second hospital stay I experienced something I hadn't for 7 or so weeks - a BM! I think my surgeon had mentioned that this would occur, however due to the pain meds (i assume) I couldn't remember this. Needless to say I was terrified when I had a BM of mostly blood, followed by another of brown liquid approximately 20 minutes later. I was convinced that my pouch was exploding. May for a very, very nervous wait of about a hour or so before my surgeon popped in and explained this was normal as my guts are now attached to my anus again.
After a walk around the hospital and a lunch in the cafeteria I checked myself out and tried for the second time to return home. I'm on oral pred now (5mg) and will be go another 2 weeks or so.
In terms of my condition currently I'm still fairly sore/uncomfortable to be honest. The area (I assume) above my anus is very sore - I assume this is where the pouch creation/work has occured. This soreness seems to have began shortly after I started passing things through my backside again.
Not a huge fan of my loop ileo at this early stage. I'm getting 98% pure liquid output. Having to drink tons of water to stay hydrated etc.
In terms of questions for people who have been through all this already:
1 - does the pooping calm down at all? I'm having 3/4 bms a day currently of watery brown liquid/mucus.
2 - any tips for dealing with the loop?
Feel free to conact me should anyone have any questions re what I've just been through.
Cheers
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