Take down

So glad to hear that you are feeling and doing so well.  My husband had his first of two surgeries on January 30th and is "tentatively" scheduled for his takedown on June 26th.  I say tentatively because he's had some issues with not healing as his surgeon would like and had to undergo a debridement procedure to help in the healing process.  He has a dr. apt this coming Thursday and we are hoping the healing process has progressed.  If he is not fully healed, take down will most likely be delayed.  Thank you for your post.  Continued success to you.  We will remain optimistic about our situation.

Karen

glad to hear things are going well so far. nice to hear some positivity as I prepare for takedown likely at the end of june! thanks! Good luck and God bless!

 So glad to hear this! Yes, it’ll continue to get better each day. And each week. I think the hardest for me as 1) gas pains and 2) feeling like I had to go and being used to running to the bathroom like when I had colitis. The more you can hold it, the bigger the pouch can stretch to hold more. 

Im about 7 mos post takedown- wow time flies, and I’m going about 10-12x a day. My doc said we can do better than that! So it’ll still improve. 

Keep taking it one day at a time and glad you’re keeping such a positive outlook. They’ll be good and bad days, as with anything. But glad today is a good day. 

Good luck to you you both who have the surgery coming up. The second surgery, I felt, was asier than my first (that is if you have it done in two stages).

Glad all is well.  My takedown is early August.  I will not miss my stoma that is for sure. 

My Takedown Surgery is booked for June 12th and I have to admit I am quite nervous. Although my first op was a complete success I did have a load of problems. I was so unwell beforehand and on steroids and tones of codeine for pain. Woke up fine but a week later when I got home I started feeling awful and couldn't stop vomiting. I never knew you could feel so sick and vomit so much. Eventually is was discovered that I was so unwell because my digestive system was paralysed, I had a urine infection and stupid me had decided to come off all pain relief in one day that I was actually going into opiate withdrawal. Can't believe I was such an idiot but its a lesson well and truly learned. I am so frightened of the next op because I was so so so ill the last time and I don't want history to repeat itself. I am on painkillers again as my rectal stump has been problematic and caused pain and I'm currently weaning myself of pain meds slowly before the op. Also I'm to remain on 15mg of steroids until op to keep inflammation in control but I worry as steroids slow the healing process. I can't explain how ill I was, I actually wanted to die but things did get better. It is also important that I say from a surgical point of view everything was fine.

I really hope the takedown surgery runs more smoothly. I hope to be one of those people that gets home after a few days and is on the med quickly. Its nice to hear that someone feels good after such a short time. Is the gas very very painful. I keep hearing that its bad. I am dreading the butt burn too. My ileostomy bag saved my life and helped me feel better. I won't miss it but I will always be grateful to it and if I had to have it back again I think I could live with it. My health means more to me than my appearance.

So glad to hear that you are feeling good and I hope u find something to help with the gas. Thanks for the tip about holding it in to stretch the pouch. I didn't know that.

So so so glad that there is a place that you can come and talk about stuff like this. Its nice to know that you are not alone.

xxxxx

Hi guys, thanks for all the replys. Yes the gas is pretty painful. I won't say it's been a piece of cake so far, because it hasn't. You know what though, I wouldn't go back for anything at this point. That first time you wake up after surgery and realize that there is nothing hanging from your belly is undescribable. It's pretty great. I think thanks to this site and the great people that a part of it,  we all know what it's like after takedown. It's another piece of the journey weve all been on for quite a while. Weve  all been through alot to get here. This is just the last part of the process. Since my last post, I've had some issues with frequency of bms, and the gas can be a real pain. Literally! But that day I felt like I crested that hill was awesome. I like all of you just want to get my new normal and get on with life. I was diagnosed with UC in 2015. After a down hill battle that was like a feight train running down hill. One of six blood transfusions,  many hospitalizations, many trial and error drug treatments, and finally large doses of steroids, because nothing ever worked to slow down my symptoms. In 2016 they removed my colon and I got my ostomy. It saved my life. And I finally felt better.In August of 2017 they created my j pouch and the dreaded loop ostomy. Man that thing was a treat.😖 I was suppose to have my takedown in Nov. of 2017. My first gastrograffin enemas showed a fistula. Wow was I freaked. After waiting a period of time "waiting for it to heal on its own" and another g. enema, it hadn't healed. In Feb. of this year, I had surgery to hopefully correct the fistula. Third and last, gees, gastrograffin x-ray said it was healed. Man was I happy. So this month on the 15th. I had my takedown. This has really been a long couple of years and I'm so happy it's finally coming to an end. I never though this part of the journey was going to be a piece of cake because of the straight up truths I've read on here and because nothing to this point really has been. But I'm in. I can do this, and so can you. Man, sorry this got so long. Anyway. It's early days, and I'm happy, even though it's really not been easy. Good luck to you all

Aimee

Amiee,

I am in the same boat.  I had surgey on the 15th as well. You said it about just want my new normal and getting on with life.  Everyday is a little different me with different pains and problems to overcome.  Gas pains are not cool and I here ya about that. I had pretty bad pains for about 2 days with gas but now it is tolerable.  Yesterday by noon I had been in the bathroom 6 times so yesterday was not good for most of the day but I was able to get relief and things calmed down towards bedtime.  Took an immodium as a last ditch effort to stop the pain and madness.  I keep telling myself there is a routine and you will find it.  I am thankful for the good days or even the good moments in the day and try to take advantage of them.

That's exactly how I feel. I very grateful that I was a candidate for a j pouch. I knew it wasn't going to be take down and go right back to life before UC. It's still a journey. I'm okay with that. Week two, not alot of change, but it's coming. We just got to keep the good attitude and do what the surgeon tells us, take some good advise from people on here, and before we know it, it's all good. After all this is what I've been waiting for. No one told me it was going to be easy. But nothing worth having really is.