I had minimal stomach upset and was able to go home after 4 days in the hospital.  I was going the day after surgery to the bathroom.  I am 6 weeks post takedown and having to make 4-5 trips in a 24 hour period.  I am also trying most foods that I was eating before surgeries, just not high fiber, and not too much caffeine.  I also had 3 step procedure.  I have found calmoseptine ointment works well to prevent butt burn, also invested in a bidet (look on Amazon),  Good to have pads/depends in case of leakage and some baby wipes. Also, walking as soon as you are able helps with gas.  I have to say that my experience so far with all 3 surgeries has been good.  I was out a week after coming home from the hospital, eating out etc.  Initially I was only given Pepto Bismol.  Now, I take Immodium as needed (when I am going out to eat), got the Costco brand.  Other than that, just vitamins, fish oil and calcium (all gummies).  Lots of people have good experiences with their pouches and are happy with the results.  My sister has had hers for close to 30 years.  I am also on the older end of those with pouches (almost 62), otherwise healthy.  I was not diagnosed with UC until April 2015, but had moderate to severe pan colitis, came on very quickly, so went to first surgery 7 mos. after.  Anyway, I am very happy with my outcome so far!  Hope this helps!  Good luck!

Good luck with your takedown. For record, I was not vomiting and felt great after takedown surgery. In many ways, easiest of all.  Took few days for things to move but walking around definitely helps thing move! Best advice I can give is to be prepared and be prepared to ease on the food. Have couple different ointments- things to protect your butt from the beginning.  You have to coat area before acidy stool comes. Calmoseptine  available at drug store though mine had to order it in. I'd recommend ordering Ilex paste to help when you get sore or at night. It works great but has to be cleaned off with Vaseline. Use vaseline to ckean after each BM. A bidet would be be great but I use plastic squirt bottles ordered from Amazon- rinsing after/ during each trip with hot water is wonderful relief. Often use 3-4 each time. You'll find what works but I'm recommending you get these thing ready for use right away. Take your own high quality TP with you to hospital. Two years later I still take my own TP when I travel cause can't handle few days of rough stuff,  or even 1 ply at nice  Marriotts! You may want to tuck cosmetic pads or folded TP just outside anus at first and have pads til things gets consistent. Caring for your butt right away important until you're eating more to absorb the acid. Rice Krispie treats and pretzels my go to snacks early on. Hopefully you'll have good support from nurses at hospital and from your surgeons office. Try to keep track of input and output, so you can adjust accordingly and have that info for the nurse. Know that it' can be a process but hoping yours doesn't take too long. Good luck and try to relax knowing you're ready and you got this! 

laurie

Thank you very much for both feedbacks! I'll start looking into some of the products you have suggested. Nice to hear there are people out there who have had a smooth recovery. I coped absolutely no bother with my first two operations, so the removal of my colon & rectum and J-Pouch construction... but I was just wondering if the gas pains are bearable after takedown? I will do plenty of walking to try and get things moving though!

Thanks again

Gas pains for me were bearable.  In the beginning more intense but now, not bad at all.

the takedown is nothing to get worked up about.. I was worried to going into it because of my last 2 operations were i was vomiting a lot after the surgery and was in a lot of pain, but the takedown was really easy. I had my op on the morning and by the night I was already using the pouch, at first I was going to the bathroom quite a lot and the butt burn was bad but the butt burn goes after a few days and the frequency goes down after the first week. The only real pain I had was gas pains but again that disappeared after the first week. I am over the moon with the jpouch I am so glad that I had the operation and wouldn't change it for any thing, what I like most about the pouch is that I can sleep through the night and not have to get up to use the toilet which I wasn't able to do with ulcerative colits or the ostomy bag... I had my takedown on the 5th september so not that long ago but I'm only going to the toilet 3-4 times a day or if I take lopermide then I only have to go twice a day, my goal with the pouch is to only go twice a day without taking the lopermide which I believe is possible. 

all the best with your takedown man

Glad you're doing well Matty!  Like you, very happy with my pouch!  

Glad you're doing well, Matty. Sounds like you have a very well functioning J-Pouch. Didn't realise you could take Loperamide with a J-Pouch... thought they were only for stoma patients. That's something else to consider!

How long did it take for them to take your catheter out and for you to be walking around after your operation, Matty?

I didn't have a catheter for the takedown and I was walking like 12 hours after the operation when I had to go to the toilet, I probably would of been walking alot sooner after the opertion but I didn't get a wink of sleep the night before so I was just to tired and slept for like 10 hours after the op !

Like you I was also more nervous and stressed about my takedown than I was about my first two surgeries.  As it turned out, this has been my easiest recovery of all.  Good luck with your future surgery and keep us posted on your recovery!

My takedown was pretty easy. I'd also read the bad things people said; about how going for the first time would be like "shitting glass" etc but none of them happened to me. They gave me a day of no food, then a bit of food to get things going and then I was out on day 3. Pain wasn't an issue. No catheter.

I was cautioned against immodium at first. Your guts stop in shock after the op, food gently gets them going again, you don't want to then be taking immodium to slow them down again. I was sure I would be taking immodium with the J Pouch but I discovered it makes things too thick and difficult to pass so I just don't bother any more.

Gas/food pain a bit of an issue at first but goes after a week. None since.

I just use a bit of wet toilet paper - cheap and easy. There was some butt burn for a month but now there's nothing.

If you coped okay with the first two ops, this one will be a total walkover

Very surprised that you both didn't have catheters in... I'll have to look into that. Can't stand having them taken out haha. But yeah I hope it's a walkover .

Thanks again, I'll keep yous posted!