Thursday, September 22, 2011

Updates From a Happy & Healthy J-Poucher!

It's been a while! Life has been both busy and healthy and, as such, I have been distanced from thinking about my "pouch." In fact, aside from some abscess-related pain and curry-induced sprints to il bagno, I have more or less forgotten about the fact that I lost my large intestine just six months ago.

That reminds me. About a week ago, I began to feel some fairly major discomfort in my abdomen around the site of my ileostomy. I kept this to myself (for the most part) as I knew I didn't have the time to take off of work to have my surgeon take a looksie. So, I was naturally forced to play the role of surgeon. Billy is of the (strong) opinion that Google and WebMD cannot act as substitiutes for a medical degree. He also likes to remind me that I am not a colorectal surgeon. While there may be a tad of truth to this, I have an admittedly deplorable habit of turning to these unacademic, and often unchecked, sites for self-diagnoses and medical advice. Well, my ten-year WebMD training certainly came in handy on Tuesday evening.... 

After some poking and prodding, I was able to remove the stitches that were causing these abscesses on my own! I won't get into gory details (which may surprise you), but a few big knotted stitches were finally removed from my abdomen and the infection seems to FINALLY be on its way out.

POUCH UPDATE: All is well on this front. It truly does get better all the time. I spoke with my surgeon last week and he promised me the pouch would continue to improve for 6 months - 1 year. I couldn't be more pleased. I do use the restroom anywhere from 6-10 times/day, but this is really a non-issue. For those of you anticipating life with a J-Pouch, just trust me...you will love it.

PS Wedding is in two weeks! Will update post-nuptials. For ten years I have been praying that I would not be on high-dose prednisone on my wedding day...and I can almost guarantee you this dream will come true!