MidasKnight
Diamond Member
I have had Ulcerative Colitis since my young twentys ( 40 now ). Have been taking very harsh imune suppresant meds for about 7 + years to keep it in controll as best as possible. Since Oct/05 the meds are not working. Tried to avoid having surgery but now it will happen.
Met with the Surgeon yesterday. Going to go for the surgery. Surgon has the plan with a backup if needed.
Plan #1 is J-pouch 2 step surgery. ( they create an internal pouch from your small intestines and connect it to .. um .. your end. )
Plan #2 is ileostomy first, then wait to see if j-pouch is possible at a later time.
Reasons:
I'm a big guy. @ 6'2" 315lbs ( longer upper-body type ) the blood vessels my not reach to the anal area where the connection needs to be made.
They wont know until they are in there. If the surgeon believes it will not reach then the ileostomy will be done.
With weight loss and time under my belt with the ileostomy, a later surgery might be able to create the pouch and attach it then ending up in a 3 stage surgery.
The surgeon explained that if plan #2 happened to be the case ... that with time the vessels ( in some cases ) can possibly stretch and ( if so or as a result of weight loss ) go back and attempt to see if a j-pouch can be created then connected.
So with my body mass ( how big I am ) he believes that I have a high chance that the blood vessels will not being able to reach to complete the j-pouch after the colon is removed. But that doesn't mean j-pouch is ruled out. So it'll depend on how long my blood vessels are with the small intestines during the first surgery.
If I end up with a permanent ileostomy ( wear a bag ) after all options are looked into .. well .. so be it. I'm done treating this UC.
The surgery with be Laparoscopic ... looking at typical hospital stay ( 5 to 10 days ) and recovery time if all goes well.
Recovery time is about 3 months. I'm looking at being off work probably 6 months.
Monday I'll get the date in May for this to happen. Looks like the week of the 18th.
Met with the Surgeon yesterday. Going to go for the surgery. Surgon has the plan with a backup if needed.
Plan #1 is J-pouch 2 step surgery. ( they create an internal pouch from your small intestines and connect it to .. um .. your end. )
Plan #2 is ileostomy first, then wait to see if j-pouch is possible at a later time.
Reasons:
I'm a big guy. @ 6'2" 315lbs ( longer upper-body type ) the blood vessels my not reach to the anal area where the connection needs to be made.
They wont know until they are in there. If the surgeon believes it will not reach then the ileostomy will be done.
With weight loss and time under my belt with the ileostomy, a later surgery might be able to create the pouch and attach it then ending up in a 3 stage surgery.
The surgeon explained that if plan #2 happened to be the case ... that with time the vessels ( in some cases ) can possibly stretch and ( if so or as a result of weight loss ) go back and attempt to see if a j-pouch can be created then connected.
So with my body mass ( how big I am ) he believes that I have a high chance that the blood vessels will not being able to reach to complete the j-pouch after the colon is removed. But that doesn't mean j-pouch is ruled out. So it'll depend on how long my blood vessels are with the small intestines during the first surgery.
If I end up with a permanent ileostomy ( wear a bag ) after all options are looked into .. well .. so be it. I'm done treating this UC.
The surgery with be Laparoscopic ... looking at typical hospital stay ( 5 to 10 days ) and recovery time if all goes well.
Recovery time is about 3 months. I'm looking at being off work probably 6 months.
Monday I'll get the date in May for this to happen. Looks like the week of the 18th.
