Hello,
I am writing to ask you all information about the surgery. My sister had UC and had a full colectomy in 2011. This year she finally decided to have the reconstruction. It has taken her 5 years to feel brave enough, and now she has done it!
She has had the first surgery, on the 20th, to create the j-pouch. Her surgeon likes to do the operation in two separate operations and wait 6 weeks before connecting the j-pouch. The first surgery was a success. She spent two nights in ICU/high care and has been on the ward since then. It looks like she will be discharged on Tuesday where she will move to a cottage near the hospital for the remaining 5 weeks before the next surgery. (We live in Swaziland and the hospital is in Johannesburg)
After the j-pouch operation she was in extreme pain for 48 hours. The surgery was 5 hours so I can only imagine her organs got a battering hence the pain. This next operation is scheduled to be a lot shorter as is her hospital stay.
Is anyone able to warn me whether she will be in as much extreme pain after this next operation? And is anyone able to tell me a bit about what she is going to expect, how to deal with this j-pouch? She said she has heard of something called butt barrier to relieve the pain that her rectum will experience from the out take. Are there any other preparatory methods/advise etc that you could help me with?
She needs to know how to deal with this. She is now 39 years old, as I mentioned we live in Swaziland (Southern Africa) and there really isn't anyone who has had a similar disease or gone through the same operations at all. Because of this she tends to hide her condition and shy from knowing more. Which is why I thought of joining this forum to ask you and then educate her.
Any advise would be extremely valuable and hugely appreciated, thank you.
Anna