Jpouch Update

So its been a little over three weeks since my ileostomy takedown and things have been going so well. I am so happy with the outcome of my jpouch! I thought my body would take a while to be used to my jpouch, but things have actually been oddly normal ever since I've been out of the hospital. I was told that I would still be having a little bit of urgency, going many times during the day, and some people even say they become slightly incontinent (like maybe at night). I have to say, I really haven't had any problems with any of that which makes me so happy. I go to the bathroom more than a normal person, but it hasn't been a problem with me at all. I even started to drink coffee and diet coke again this past week and everything has still been very normal. I have also gone out to the bar a few times and I just take immodium before going out. I finally feel like a "normal" person again! I haven't felt this feeling in over two years. It is such a relief to not have to constantly be worrying about my ostomy anymore.

About a week after my surgery, I decided that I wanted to begin working out again. I went to the gym twice that week and realized I should probably wait a little bit longer because my stomach was hurting me a lot. The pain kept getting worse and worse and by that Friday of that week, I ended up going to the Emergency Room. I thought that my wound from where my ostomy used to be was infected because it was hurting so badly, it had a slight layer of pus over it, and around the top of the wound, it was very hard. After being at the ER for about 5 hours, it was confirmed that it wasn't infected. I had some of my doctors come down to look at my wound, and they had to scrape a layer of dead tissue out of it, causing major bleeding and pain in my wound. After leaving the ER, my wound looked so much worse than what it looked like going in. My wound was about an inch deep into my abdomen and they told me I would need to do a wet to dry dressing change on it until it closes up. Ever since then, I have had no problems with it and its starting to look like its healing better now. It is still an open wound so I do a dressing change on it every day.

Tomorrow I am heading back to the University of Chicago for my post-op appointment. Im sure nothing too exciting will happen there. I think they are just going to be looking at my wound and making sure everything has been going well with me. Also this week I am going to be observing in the GI lab during my clinicals! I am going to be watching different procedures including colonoscopies and endoscopies which I am extremely excited about! Yay GI!

 Heres my wound after they scraped away the dead tissue! Gross, I know. 

 And here is my tummy with no ostomy! yay

Life is good ~
-- JKL