Takedown Surgery Day Two
December 31, 2008Lots of views so far on my Day One video, so to follow up, as promised, Day Two. If you notice, in these hospital videos my voice doesn’t have as much pep or energy as usual, partially because I had a roommate who I didn’t want to bother, and partially because I was still kind of tired after surgery, as you can imagine.
And a minor update, yesterday this site broke the 5,000 view mark since launching and the videos broke the 14,000 view mark since premiering. Thanks for all the support so far! Keep telling your friends and family about this site.
And if anybody has any questions about life post-takedown surgery, don’t forget to ask me!
Keep fighting,
~Dennis
Hi Dennis, congrats again on your speedy recovery. We’d like to let you and your readers know that ucstory.wordpress.com has a brand-new address and look & feel: http://www.jpouch.net
Thanks again for all your important posts!
Hi Dennis,
It sounds like you’re doing well. After my takedown, I was in there for 10 days b/c I couldn’t hold down my food. You should be out in no more than 5 days. I’ve had the jpouch for 21 years (it was approved earlier that year and I was # thirty something). I can’t really compare IBD to the pouch as I only had one bout of “UC” which was getting better. Suggestions: eat small portions and chew your food well, stick with easy to digest foods for awhile. I’ve met a couple of people who vomit their salads. Salad doesn’t bother me. There was always a chance that popcorn would stop everything for 1-2 days and if this occurred, I would only drink Ensure and water. In 2006 it began to cause significant abd. distention and pain. Early in December I ate 6 oz. of Affy Tapple carmel corn and I was in extreme pain for the 1st week, tried accupuncture for the first time and it really helped. I’m still eating soft foods because of this episode – I believe it scratched my intestines. I cooked a hamburger about 10 days after this began, ate 3 oz. of this and the next morning my abdomen was distended again, gurgling, pain, followed by diarrhea. Remember, this is 21 years later. Food high in animal fat make me nauseous (italian sausage, mexican sausage). I won’t try breakfast sausage. Bacon, butter, and everything else works fine. Duncan Donuts coffee use to cause diarrhea or pouchitis but it hasn’t in the past year. If there’s any foods that seem to make you nauseous or bother you, stop but try again no less than 30 days after the episode if you wish.
You’re stool will be all liquid and you’ll see the foods your body cannot digest in the bowl. It also splatters all over the bowl and I sometimes see a few drops on the tile. I now take PB 8 (has 8 probiotics) – it helps coagulate the stool in my case. The messy part is still there but not as bad. I added Digestive Advantage (recommended by a GI) a couple of days ago. Probiotics should help. Carbs seem to cause a more watery BM. Protein makes it somewhat thicker (i.e. red meat, eggs, cottage cheese, tuna fish). I have no more than 5 BMs/day but IBS runs in my family. During the first 18 years, I had 1-3/day which is odd for a jpouch patient.
If diarrhea occurs, you most likely have “pouchitis”. Abnormal gurgling or “swishy” sounds may be a clue that something is happening. My GI use to prescribe Flagyl but now prescribes Levaquin (Cipro gives me diarrhea). Try to recall your food intake. This may be the cause but not certain. Stress may be a cause but never tried to correlate this. I had mild diarrhea this year but took Asacol for 3 months instead and everything went back to normal.
Oops!
You should be back to normal within 90 days. I wish you the best!
Happy New Year!!!
Rebecca