I had 3 step surgery. First step was July of 2019. Second step was august of 2020. 3rd stage was Nov 2020.
My surgeon told me I should wait at least 6 months between the first and 2nd surgeries and wait 3 months between 2nd and 3rd surgery.
I ended up waiting over a year between my 1st and 2nd surgery. I just couldn't get the time off of work then right when I was going to get it everything shut down because of COVID.
My takedown was about 6 weeks ago.
As far as which surgery was the worst. For me that's an easy one. The first surgery was by far the worst. Not because of the surgery but because I was so incredibly sick from uc. It took me so long to recover. I was so week I could barely put my pants on. I had dropped about 90 pounds in about a month and a half. After that was over everything else seemed easy.
The second surgery wasn't to bad. I was in very good shape. I was training like crazy before the surgery so I could recover faster. The only thing that really sucked was the loop ostomy. It took me over a month to figure out how to get it to seal right so it didn't leak and my skin wasn't trashed.
3rd surgery was easy. I'm still getting used to things but overall it's no big deal.
Good luck man