Hi all,
I’ve had my j pouch since 2013. There have been good days and bad days, but overall the pouch has been great for me. I’ve had occasional cuffitis in the past and maintaining consistent pouch function has sometime been challenging, but it’s always been minor enough for me to treat at home through diet.
Last year was probably the best year I've had in terms of pouch function (I was feeling healthy, gaining weight, eating/drinking what I wanted etc). However, at the end of the year, I started to experience sharp pain in my pouch (around the cuff/sphincter) and difficulty emptying.
Due to me moving cities it took a while to get a referral and I wasn’t able to see a specialist until March this year (the UK NHS can sometimes be very slow). As I suspected, they think that I am experiencing some narrowing, and they commented on difficulty completing the examination due to how narrow things feel down there. I feel like the pain is around the top of my sphincter/cuff, but I do have more urgency now as a result of the pain and I feel like my pouch capacity is down too.
They decided to place me on a urgent list for day surgery under general anesthetic to complete a pouchoscopy. They would then perform any required dilation at the same time.
Frustratingly, I got a chest infection late march which turned into pneumonia, resulting in my investigation getting delayed. I am finally due to have my pouchoscopy/dilation completed this month, but I am conscious that my situation has been allowed to deteriorate during this time.
I'd really love to hear any positive outcomes people have experienced after experiencing a stricture and dilation. I've been persevering with this for so many months now that I'm worried about whether I will be able to return to how I was before. Has anyone had success in returning back to normal following the dilation procedure?