One Week Post Op

A week ago today I woke up from my second step surgery to conquer my UC.  For the most part it was a very similar feeling to the step-one surgery I had in February.  I was out of it, sore, mildly nauseous, and just have flashes of memory of the day.  A couple of the memories are as follows:

A big grey cloudy shaped person telling me to blow into this plastic hose.  I figured this was the device they give you to help your lungs avoid pneumonia while in the hospital.  I remember they kept saying my name because I would fall asleep between breaths attempts.

I remember drinking some cranberry juice and thinking it was way sweeter then I remember it ever tasting before.

I remember looking at the clock and seeing that it was 8:00pm and that I had basically slept all day.  

The next day I was much more lucid.  My health care team was fantastic.  I was able to stay on top of pain with a pump they hooked up to my IV.  Between this and regular walks around the hospital corridors, my four days were rather uneventful.  This being my 4th time in the hospital since November, I felt like everything was old hat.  

The day after my surgery, my surgeon came by to give me the play by play.  They had successfully removed my rectum, taken a portion of my small intestine and created the J-Pouch..  For the next two months while the J-Pouch can heals they do a temporary ileostomy similar to the one I've had since the first surgery. He said that everything went well, but they did have to use a slightly different method then they typically do due how inflamed my rectum was.  He said it didn't add any additional risk to me but, I got the idea it was just a little messier.     Bottom line, he said my body should start feeling much better to not be fighting all that inflammation.  They were great words to hear.  It was just another reminder of the contrast of once you are sick for so long, you start to forget what it's like to feel healthy.  I had felt so much better after having my colon removed during the first operation that it never dawned on me that it could feel even better after the second. 

So far, my fears about having a loop ileostomy compared with the end ileostomy have so far been no big deal.  I had heard that lots of people with loops struggle to avoid leaks, and have big skin irritation.  Now I know it has only been a week, but knock on wood, I have changed my bag a couple times and it pretty much is acting like my end ileostomy.  Let's hope it stays that way. 

I will say, I am going way more stir crazy then I have for the previous surgeries.  Maybe because it's summer and there is just way more fun stuff I could be doing then pacing around the house and binge watching Battlestar Galatica.  I just keep reminding myself to be patient and this will someday just be a faint blip in the grand scheme of things.   

4 Days Post Op - Happy to be going Home!