The Ileostomy bag is a big adjustment. The hospital should have a ostomy nurse, but I think a visiting nurse is a good idea. I could never get a good seal on my ostomy bag like the nurses did, and that is really critical.
You being there will be very important. I had the operation when I was in my 20s. I was still living with my parents at the time. They drove 1.5 hours from Connecticut to New York City to be with me every day. The surgery was even more major back in 1992, due to the laparoscopic option not existing at the time. I had a lot of post surgical complications, but survived them. I can’t even begin to say how much it meant for my parents and other loved ones to be with me every day.
Smartphones did not exist back in 1992, and the internet had not yet been invented. I remember we watched a lot of TV and what was on TV mostly when I had my surgery was news coverage of the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.
I was also lucky that I had a roommate who was a good guy and an attorney like myself. I was just getting started and he had just retired and sadly was dying of leukemia, but I spent the last two weeks of his life with him as he shared his retirement dreams with me, as well as looking back on his career. I still think about him to this day.
I was also fortunate that the surgery was done in Mount Sinai in NYC, which at the time was a colectomy and J Pouch factory. I had the chance to speak to many other patients on my floor, some of whom were at stage 2, so I knew what to expect.
Things have improved so much in 2018 from what I had done in 1992, so I am sure your husband will do well. I am now coming up on 26 years with my J Pouch, and the surgery was a real game changer for me in battling IBD, which I have done since age 9.
best wishes-