Weight: When I had UC, my weight would fluctuate as I had flare ups. When I got out of the first surgery, I was coming in at a 152 pounds. Now, I’m sitting around a 183 pounds and, here is the best part, it no longer fluctuates all over the place. I’m super proud of this achievement. It means my body is stable for the first time in 8 years!!

Poop: I still go more than an average person, but come on, people. Come on. During UC I had constant pains and had to run to the bathroom every hour or so. I now don’t have to rush or anything. It’s all rather casual now. My stool is also more controlled now (you know: solid, smells like flowers, wins awards).

Diet: I have less restrictions now than when I had UC. I started slowly, sampling various foods and transitioning my diet to new food groups. So far, everything is good. I do avoid a few certain styles of food because, well, the results were mixed. Leafy salad, corn, and Mexican food aren’t on my Favorites List, but there hasn’t been a food that totally wrecked me. For those concerned about Mexican food: no, you won’t have to sacrifice the deliciousness. But I do recommend you pace yourself ha.

Fiber: BeneFiber is awesome. I don’t have to take it as often. In fact, I haven’t’ taken it in over a month. Instead, I just take it when I’m going to try a new food or eat something that I know will cause issues (looking right at you, soup).

Meds: Aside from the occasional Pro Biotic (VSL #3) and multi-vitamin, I currently don’t take any medicine. For someone who used to take 12 Asacol tablets a day on top of other fun pills for many many years, this is extremely liberating. Weird, almost. But I feel like I earned this freedom by going through with the surgery.

Exercise: I go the gym 6 days a week. I’m not trying to get buff or win World’s Strongest Man, regardless of what my previous claims might have implied. Instead, I’m just really, really, really excited about being healthy again and am trying to maintain my health by helping my body out.

Scars: Check it out:

Aside from the large scar that I've had since I was a wee baby, you can barely tell.

Team Challenge: I learned about this from fellow j-pouch community member Elise. Team Challenge is having a fund-raiser half-marathon this December in Las Vegas for the CCFA and I’ve been training dangit. When I had UC, I couldn’t run unless it was straight to the bathroom. Now, get this, I can drive to the city, train, come back, and THEN use the bathroom. And when I say “train” I mean pretty long distances. This past weekend was 5 miles walking and 5 miles running. I’ve never run 5 miles in my life, ever. It’s soooo motivating to be surrounded by a team members all gunning for the same cause: finding cures for UC and Crohn’s. And yes, I’ve been raising funds. All of my fund raising goes straight to the cause: YOU. I’m doing this for everyone affected by UC or Crohn’s. I hope to make you all proud! Here is my fundraiser page. Lizz you better donate a grand or I’m sending you “questionable” pictures.

Training for a %$#ing half marathon.

These posts might also help out:

• February 25, 2010 -- Commenter with Questions (13)
• July 20, 2011 -- 2 Years Post TakeDown (6)
• April 5, 2010 -- Home from Surgery #1 (1)
• June 27, 2009 -- The Post-Op Follow-Up Round-Up (14)

Since my last surgery wasn’t done laproscopically, this one wasn’t done either. After the first surgery, my incision got infected, and it had to be re-opened. It then healed over several months with a packed dressing, resulting in an indentation and a lot of scar tissue. As the surgeon was opening the same incision again this time, I asked him to excise the scar tissue, which he did. He also said that if it got infected this time and had to be re-opened, he would refer me to a plastic surgeon, which made me happy.

I had high hopes to get everything done during the 2nd surgery, but it was not to be. My surgeon later told me that after opening the incision, he almost just closed it back up and left things as they were. He couldn’t even find what was left of my large intestine. His best guess is that the remaining portion was not completely sealed and it created some sort of suction that moved my uterus and ovaries over and entangled them with the intestine. He was not willing to relocate the reproductive organs himself, as it’s not his area of specialty and was concerned about future pregnancies. My partner and I are 95% sure we don’t want children, so this was really not a bit concern for us, but he didn’t know that, and it’s nice to keep the option open. We’re still relatively young (27) and I guess you never know what will happen later. Thankfully, a gynecologic surgeon was nearby, and got pulled in to do that part of the surgery. There was also a hernia and muscle deterioration. The surgery ended up taking 8 hours and the surgeon was concerned that it was too much of a trauma on my body to complete the process. So, my j-pouch has been created and is ready to go, but I have a loop ileostomy. I also have about 40 staples down my mid-line and a small hole where the drain was after surgery. Having the drain removed was definitely the worst part – I will definitely ask for more pain meds before removal if they do that next time. It took maybe 5-10 seconds, but it was surprisingly uncomfortable.

The staples and the rod that is in the loop ileostomy come out tomorrow. I’m told that the removal of the staples isn’t that bad, just like a little prick for each one. I’m looking forward to having the rod removed, as I’m uncomfortable changing the flange with that present. The ileostomy will then go back to being basically as it was before, although it’s a bit bigger than the old one, of course. All in all, I’m not feeling too bad. I’ve been off the pain meds since Saturday and feel pretty good, other than fatigue, which is expected. The surgeon estimated 2 months off, but that seems like too long to me. I think the recovery is easier since I’m not also getting used to using the j-pouch (there’s the upside!).

These posts might also help out:

• November 10, 2009 -- 6 Months Later: Jaypouchirifical (22)
• February 6, 2009 -- Week In Review (0)
• January 30, 2009 -- Week in Review (0)
• January 28, 2009 -- Meet My Hernia (2)

Speaking of care and loved ones, this week has seen some great posts on the topic of love and life, by Lizz. And I just realized that, while I hang out behind the scenes a lot and tweak some colors and edit some posts, I’ve never properly introduced myself or explained my whole story. Look for that in the near future, and stay strong everyone!

These posts might also help out:

• January 30, 2009 -- Week in Review (0)
• November 10, 2009 -- 6 Months Later: Jaypouchirifical (22)
• February 19, 2009 -- Update for Surgery: Round 2 (8)
• February 5, 2009 -- Love & A J-Pouch…And Crohn’s… (5)

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 them!

We also welcomed Jessalyn to the site, as she shared her story with everyone.

And after reading Abby’s update, we realized that a web search for ‘pouchoscopy’ yielded only speculative results. Well, a little Wikipedia account creation and editing took care of that, and it also resulted in a great conversation with “superman” from the U.K.

Finally, Brevin wrote what is probably the funniest list of questions for a surgeon that we have ever seen. In fact, we’re going to stop now and go re-read them… right after we experiment with time traveling over dinner!

Thanks for a great week everyone!

These posts might also help out:

• February 6, 2009 -- Week In Review (0)
• November 10, 2009 -- 6 Months Later: Jaypouchirifical (22)
• February 19, 2009 -- Update for Surgery: Round 2 (8)
• January 23, 2009 -- Week In Review (3)

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This week, Boots’ story has been viewed many many times, and his photos are finally up! Also, quite a few of you had some opinions about Prednisone (and rightly so), while others supplied good examples of movies to rent while in the hospital. Thanks for another great week, and three cheers to a healthy life!

These posts might also help out:

• January 12, 2009 -- Most Popular Posts This Week (last week) (0)
• August 24, 2011 -- Thank You Supporters of Jpouch Dot Net! (1)
• November 29, 2009 -- Jpouch Life Now iPhone Friendly! (1)
• November 10, 2009 -- 6 Months Later: Jaypouchirifical (22)

Mark’s 9 Month Update, even though it wasn’t posted recently, had the most visitors. “My life 9 months with my jpouch now is completely normal, I don’t think about being sick…”

UC to Jpouch to Crohn’s “I begged my mother to, “please, please not take me to the hospital,” but by the time she was dragging me only by sheer determination to the car (vomit bag in tow)…”

Mark’s 15 Month Update “The one thing I can report about living with a jpouch is that of the pouch’s adaptability…”

Stay healthy and strong everyone!

These posts might also help out:

• January 23, 2009 -- Week In Review (3)
• November 10, 2009 -- 6 Months Later: Jaypouchirifical (22)
• February 19, 2009 -- Update for Surgery: Round 2 (8)
• February 6, 2009 -- Week In Review (0)