Mark had a two step surgery.  Mark’s Step 1 surgery was a laproscopic total proctocolectomy with ileoanal reservoir reconstruction or in doctor talk Ileal Pouch Anal Anastomosis (IPAA) or Ileoanal anastomosis (J-POUCH to us common folks). with a temporary loop ileostomy until the jpouch heals (’takedown’ is 2nd surgery).   See J-Pouch Illustrated to understand how the temp ileo works until takedown is done.  His surgery time frame were:

July 2007 – lapro IPAA.

July-October – Lived with Temporary Ileo.

October 2007 – Takedown surgery, temp ileo gone.

We are asked to clarify why it seems the U.K. and U.S. do surgeries different. We don’t have the technical reason, but this is how we explain it when asked:  I’m not sure in the U.K. why it is done in so many steps. I do know in the U.S. that some people have one step, two step or three step depending on their health status (really sick people have 3 steps b/c their health can’t handle the more advanced surgery all at once so they do it in pieces to help the body heal).  Also, doctors do the steps via what their training is and what they are comfortable doing. Here we have two camps: surgeons that do lapro and those that do open surgery.  Since we’ve had some international attention to the blog, we’ve learned that the surgeries although the same really do vary between countries.

Photo via: J-Pouch Illustrated

These posts might also help out:

• June 19, 2008 -- Most FAQs: Elective Surgery? (0)
• July 20, 2011 -- 2 Years Post TakeDown (6)
• September 2, 2010 -- My Foster Bag Wants to be Adopted (6)
• August 17, 2010 -- IBS? Nah: Irritable Vowels! (0)

Yes, Mark’s surgery was technically “optional.” He could have lived non-functionally sick with his colon forever or he could have had the “optional” surgery.  A common question and one we asked is When did you know time for surgery? There are many posts out there like this one Jpouch vs Ileostomy and these help you feel not so alone in this journey.  Mark tells his story in this post: For those not forced into surgery, and Stories of surgery decision making . And although we get this question a lot, just because we sorta answer it here, you can feel free to write us at any time to talk about your decision process. For us making the decision took 3 years and was really, extremely difficult.   We have lots of experience offering our experience on making the decision, so use us as a resource if you need.  You don’t have to go through this decision alone, that was our mistake!

Here is a Video that is really well done that talks about making the decision for surgery, and her two step surgery is shown and discussed.  Technical and emotional are both addressed.  Really Recommend to Watch!

These posts might also help out:

• January 28, 2009 -- Meet My Hernia (2)
• June 20, 2008 -- Excellent Video: UC to J-pouch (1)
• June 20, 2008 -- Most FAQS: Two-Step Surgery (6)
• July 20, 2011 -- 2 Years Post TakeDown (6)