As you may recall if you read my story in the past I was diagnosed with a severe case of UC (toxic mega colon) in 2008 when I became pregnant. During my lengthy hospitalization, we lost our daughter and I gave still-birth to her at five months along. Just a couple of weeks later my colon was removed. The most challenging time in my life, no doubt. But here’s where it gets good folks! I have been healing. I feel good, and my husband and I have started the adoption process! After weighing the pros and cons of getting pregnant, we decided that adoption fit us better. (Plus, I can’t go off the Cipro without getting sick, and you can’t be pregnant on it – though there may be other options, we didn’t explore them.)

While I know patience is a virtue I will be embracing as we go through the adoption process, I get so excited sometimes I can hardly stand it! I cant’ tell you how wonderful it is to feel HOPE about the future again!

These posts might also help out:

• December 29, 2011 -- Loss & Gain (2)
• July 20, 2011 -- 2 Years Post TakeDown (6)
• November 4, 2010 -- Fear Monger, MD (6)
• August 17, 2010 -- IBS? Nah: Irritable Vowels! (0)

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 nauseous for like an hour afterward. There was also some blood in my stool. My doctor wanted to do the pouchoscopy to see if either the opening to my pouch wasn’t dilating, or if I had already developed pouchitis.

I didn’t have to do any prep for the pouchoscopy. They had me change into a hospital gown, hooked up some heart monitors, and started an IV. They wheeled me into the procedure room and started the good drugs. It felt like a half a bottle of wine hit me in just a few seconds. I was with it enough to see what was going on on the screen. The opening to my pouch wasn’t dilating. My doctor was able to dilate it during the procedure. I didn’t really feel anything (that I remember anyway).

I went home after the procedure and took about a three hour nap. That day I was able to have bowel movements without much trouble, but then the weekend came and things got rough again – but not as rough as they had been before. I called my doctor on Monday and told her my status. She had me come in again on Wednesday to check me out.

At my appointment on Wednesday the 21st she did a rectal exam in the office (bend over, here’s the lubrication, fingers in, pushing around – ouch!). She said that because I still have my rectum and 5 cm of mucosa lining, the opening to my pouch is too high up for me to learn how to do self-dilations. She said she read that 50-60% of people who have problems with the opening to their J-Pouch dilating will eventually be able to dilate after repeated dilations and can therefore avoid surgery to revise the j-pouch. Because it hurt too much to do in her office without drugs, we are now scheduling weekly out-patient dilations at the hospital. I’m fine with that. She sounded like she’s willing to do this for months to see if it works and we can avoid surgery. Surgery would in the very least mean another temporary ileostomy and in the worst case would mean a permanent ileostomy if the integrity of the pouch couldn’t be kept during the surgery.

So for now I’m going to the hospital every Friday morning to be scoped and dilated. Thank God for the good drugs!!

These posts might also help out:

• July 20, 2011 -- 2 Years Post TakeDown (6)
• December 8, 2010 -- Cleveland Clinic, Day 1 (6)
• September 2, 2010 -- My Foster Bag Wants to be Adopted (6)
• August 5, 2010 -- Crohn’s…Again? (7)