So, here is the thing. The primary question for the original poster was regarding advice from people who have gone from j-pouch to a permanent ileostomy. Lauren has no experience to offer. Neither do I, or others who have replied. So, take all that with a grain of salt.
That said, it is perfectly fine for someone to explore options if pouch failure is becoming a likely diagnosis. Each person needs to decide what their threshold is. Some people just want to avoid more meds. Others will do anything to avoid surgery. But, none of that helps the person asking for advice.
I personally had very good results with Remicade for chronic pouchitis, but I do not have a pouch inlet stricture.
One thing I would like to point out is that reverting back to an ileostomy is not as simple as some would like to assume. Some make it seem like it is an easy reversal. It is in reality a quite difficult surgery to remove the j-pouch and it takes a long time for the perineal wound to heal. This is the source of most of the complications. It is possible to leave the pouch intact with an end ileostomy, but pouchitis is likely to continue and mucus will continue to shed that is difficult to maintain continence with. A pouch redo is another option, but is also another difficult procedure.
My real point is that we all have our ideas of what would be our own best solution, but what is needed here is advice from someone who has lived through surgery for a failed pouch.
Blood_stained_warrior, sorry for high-jacking your thread, but I wanted to be sure you got some good advice. There have been quite a few members here who opted out of their j-pouch, but may not be posting here anymore. you may want to search for posts on pouch excision or ileostomy surgery to get some older threads. In the meantime here is a link with some info for you:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28387059/
I hope this helps you figure out your next step.
Jan 