J-pouch Life

My Story begins in February of 2000, 3 days before my Husband and I were to leave on a 7-day Mexican Cruise celebrating our first year of Marriage. We attended a Birthday Party that night at a local Mexican restaurant and I had to leave the table over and over again with terrible diarrhea, just [...]

I was recently reading the November 27, 2008 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, and they did an article on the famous fashion designer Marc Jacobs. The article is really interesting and talks about his story of living with UC – it is excellent that someone so high profile is willing to talk about their disease. [...]

before it all began Hi everyone. My name is Casey, I’m 21 and live in Florida. I took a lot of pictures through the last year of my surgeries and decided to share in hopes of helping someone going through the same situation. Feel free to ask questions or just leave comments! my email is [...]

These excellent 4 part illustrations from John Hopkins Colon Cancer Center clearly explain the Restorative Proctocolectomy (Ileoanal Pouch Procedure) that Mark had.  The surgery is also called IPAA for short, and the Ileoanal Pouch is the long name for Jpouch. Hopefully, these clear drawings will help you understand the procedure, and the John Hopkins Colon Cancer [...]

9 months after my “takedown” surgery, here is an update on my status. My life 9 months with my jpouch now is completely normal, I don’t think about being sick. I don’t worry about what I eat (like UC days) like pizza, in my UC days I would eat pizza but I do it knowing [...]

Here is some food for thought for those heading in to or pondering “elective surgery.” Instead of pondering and dwelling on what are all the possible complications of surgery, why not consider what is the BEST CASE SCENARIO?  Why do we always see the “worst case scenario” and why was it a revelation to me [...]

Below is a photo of Mandy and her friend simply having fun and NOT letting her ostomy get in the way of water skiing and living life.  “haha all taped up and ready to go!  my friends taped my bag to my stomach so it wouldn’t fly around…and my friend Kevin taped his stomach so [...]

July 12, 2008:  Tony Snow has died from colon cancer, he was 53 years old.  Tony Snow served as White House Press Secretary for Bush, and other republican political ties. This post isn’t about politics, but the politics of IBD rather. This post is about the fact that he UC for 25 years.  After living [...]

 Looks like “times they are a’ chaning” if CCFA is posting billboards to bring disease awareness.  Hopefully you’ll be able to see the billboard details, but the female in the photo is sitting on the toilet and resting her head against the wall with her eyes closed.  It’s a pretty powerful image.  The text reads [...]