Mark 9 month Jpouch Update

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 I was going to feel awful afterward, now I can eat and I don’t worry.  Of course, I don’t eat pizza much – I do try to eat healthier than not, but I do splurge for some good junk every now and again. 

BMs in 24 hour:  Going to the bathroom 6-8 times a day has just become part of my routine, because I don’t feel sick, there is no urgency so when I have to go thats it, I have to go.   I don’t have any urgency, and no leaking. The consistency of my movements is pretty normal, a lot like before I had UC, basically formed and looks the same.  Here is my BM schedule for those of you interested: 

2 BMs when I get up and start my day  (don’t eat breakfast)

1 BM after eat Lunch

1 BM before dinner

2 BMs after dinner before bedtime

1 time in the middle of night between 3-4 am

Gas:  Simply put, I am pretty gassy.  My gas may be from metamucil or what I’ve eaten.  I have found that the gas is a lot of what I realse during the daytime when I go to the bathroom, sometimes the gas puts pressure hurts in my abdomen but when I pass that I feel fine. 

BM noise in the bathroom:   Sometimes it is quiet but sometimes it does sound pretty splatter like. 

Weight Gain & Body Changes:  My stomach around that stoma site does look a bit different, you can see it is in these photos I think that I look a little bulged around the stoma site and belly button area. If you look at my stomach before the surgery like in this photo https://ucstory.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/step-1-1.jpg and then compare it to the couple in this update post, I look different some. I’ve gained about 15-20 pounds since the surgery 1 and I’m back to the exact weight I was before UC. It feels so good to be healthy that my body could look like anything and I don’t think I’d care – it is just incredible to feel healthy so much of my adult life was wasted by UC a small belly bulge is now a small price to pay Megan likes to tease me about my “middle-age bulge” – she thinks its funny.

Sexuality:  I have some again, thank goodness!  UC days it seemed sex wasn’t a huge interest.  Now, I feel healthy and normal, and I have full function – no physical problems, all my parts seem to be working well.  And my interest or libido is back, maybe not like before UC days but I’m also not a youngin’ these days. 

Medicines:  2 imodium in the morning, spoonful of metamucil in the morning. And then the same at dinner time.  What I think is that when I don’t take the immodium or metamucil my BMs just become more liquid, and more liquid means more butt burn.  Therefore, the goal for me is to keep the BMs more solid.  The immodium and metamucil do not seem to cut down on the # of BMs, just the consistency.

Drinking Alcohol:  The big question asked is can drink with my jpouch?  And the answer is YES, I do.  Here is what I’ve learned for myself (of course everyone is different), but for me, light domestic beers don’t bother stomach, things with high hops (microbrews, etc..) seem to be too heavy and I feel bloated and I feel hungover from drinkinng even 1 beer.   Red wine and thats been fine.  Crown Royal and Coke doesn’t bother me either.  Other than that I haven’t tried many drinks.  Also, I don’t tend to drink so much that I’m drunk, just more causal.

Hemorrhoids:  Mild

Butt burn:  Don’t really have it, if I eat or drink poorly and that makes my BMs more liquidy then I will have some burn, but overall this isn’t an issue for me at all. And if I see the burn coming then I do whatever is needed to get my BMs thicker. 

I LOVE MY J-POUCH – I HAVE ZERO REGRETS!  Mark