J-pouch Life

I went in for my third outpatient dilation and pouchoscopy this morning. (I had an additional one done in my doctor’s office without meds – not fun!) I think I have the drill down now. Everyone in the clinic knew my name and greeted me. I filled out the same paper work (for the third [...]

I don’t think we can stress enough how important your comments are to us! On 148 posts, we’ve had a whopping 578 comments. Keep ‘em coming! This week we expressed our sympathies to Mike, who had some bad news. In response to that, if you have some relationship stories you’d like to share, please post [...]

I’ve just returned from a post-surgery follow-up (more hyphens anyone?) with my surgeon. I scheduled the appointment because I noticed something squishy around my incision. Since all my friends happen to be doctors, they all told me it was an umbilical hernia. In my nicely ignorant state of medical knowledge (with apologies to my wife [...]

Reading Abby’s update from yesterday made me realize: there’s no Wikipedia page for pouchoscopy! This might not seem like a big deal, but when you consider that Wikipedia results are typically in the top 3 on Google for any term-specific search, you can begin to see why it’s important. Well, luckily it’s a wiki, so [...]

So for those of you who read my first blog entry on this website, here’s my update. On Friday, January 16, 2009 I went in for a pouchoscopy to see what was up with me having such difficulty having bowel movements. I had to push so hard to go to the bathroom that I felt [...]

My latest colonoscopy results are in. Prior to the colonoscopy, I was still in the decision making process and trying to overcome my fear of surgery. Well, the colonoscopy made the decision for me. After seven years of maximum dosage for my ulcerative colitis, I’m not improving. While I could suck it up and keep [...]

After I had Step Two of my three surgeries, I was expelling waste rather quickly. Too quickly, it seemed. I was afraid I couldn’t adsorb anything so my surgeon recommended chewable vitamins. Although they seem childish, you can absorb them better because you’ve chewed them first! Even now, after takedown, I still take 2 chewable [...]

I was diagnosed with UC at the age of 19 after my freshman year of college. Things started progressing very rapidly and I did not respond to medications very well. I tried numerous medication including Remicade infusions and prolonged use of prednisone. After getting very sick one weekend I was admitted to the hospital on [...]

I just received bad news. My partner of over 2 years, just told me this weekend that our relationship was no longer working out for him. It took me by total surprise because he is such an affectionate person, I never doubted his love for me. And he was a huge part of the reason [...]