I like to celebrate everything. My J-pouch is turning 6 years old on October 13th. And my takedown was December 19th. I am celebrating all of that! Are you?
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I definitely remember the exact dates - Dec 6 and Feb 7. I don't celebrate, but I think it's a great idea!
@Kangaroo posted:I definitely remember the exact dates - Dec 6 and Feb 7. I don't celebrate, but I think it's a great idea!
I agree, you should celebrate! Those are the days your life changed forever in a positive way! What year did yours happen for both? Mine was all in 2014 lol
We celebrate them, I think they were massive life events so why not!! My pouch was born 19th November 2014, and takedown was 13th May 2015 so we’ve just celebrated our 5 year anniversary xx
@Maria410 posted:We celebrate them, I think they were massive life events so why not!! My pouch was born 19th November 2014, and takedown was 13th May 2015 so we’ve just celebrated our 5 year anniversary xx
I love how you said born 
and yeah I agree! You must have had a three step surgery instead of a two step? I had 2 step
I had the colectomy in 2016 and takedown in 2017.
@Kangaroo posted:I had the colectomy in 2016 and takedown in 2017.
Wow, during the end of the year and the first part of the year. Must have been hard, but you got through it
Exactly! I got through it all and my j pouch is a complete success!
@Kangaroo posted:Exactly! I got through it all and my j pouch is a complete success!
Yeah! We are warriors!
@ElmerFudd posted:My daughter and I went into the hospital, 5 years apart - to the day (weird), and we celebrate j-pouch day in Feb in our house. She had surgeries in Feb and April, and I had mine in Feb, July, and Oct. We even make a j-pouch cake some years 😂
You both have J-pouches 5 years apart??? That is sooo cool!!!! I love this! Did Publix make it???
Not the exact day, no. I do kind of celebrate every time I poo sitting down. (Unfortunately I kind of celebrate more often than I would like, especially in the middle of the night)
@Lauren Of Emerald City posted:You both have J-pouches 5 years apart??? That is sooo cool!!!! I love this! Did Publix make it???
You know what is really weird? We both went into the hospital on Feb. 3 (2006 and 2011) - 5 years apart, to the day. I was almost 37 and she was almost 8 when we each had our first surgery. And we made the cake ourselves Make sure and note the Tootsie Roll at the bottom - my younger (non j-pouch) daughter's favorite part of that cake at the time.
@ElmerFudd posted:You know what is really weird? We both went into the hospital on Feb. 3 (2006 and 2011) - 5 years apart, to the day. I was almost 37 and she was almost 8 when we each had our first surgery. And we made the cake ourselves
Oh my goodness!!! How IRONIC is that???!! LOL that is soo freaking cool!!! J-pouches on the same day and different year!! I LOVE THAT!!! And dang!! You guys did a FANTASTIC job!!! It looks YUMMY too! Did you guys go to the same hosptial and same doctor too? 
@girlunky posted:Not the exact day, no. I do kind of celebrate every time I poo sitting down. (Unfortunately I kind of celebrate more often than I would like, especially in the middle of the night)
You should find out by your operative reports and medical papers, I have mine
@Lauren Of Emerald City posted:Oh my goodness!!! How IRONIC is that???!! LOL that is soo freaking cool!!! J-pouches on the same day and different year!! I LOVE THAT!!! And dang!! You guys did a FANTASTIC job!!! It looks YUMMY too! Did you guys go to the same hosptial and same doctor too?
Lauren, no - we have an awesome children's hospital here in Kansas City (Children's Mercy Hospital - CMH), and my surgeon won't operate on kids. She has done some surgical consulting (been in the OR) with some of the surgeons at CMH, but my daughter won't start seeing her until next year. She is an awesome doctor & surgeon, by the way.
My surgeon does all follow-up on her j-pouch patients, unless there is ongoing need for a GI (chronic pouchitis, for example). I see her every 2 years now. When I saw her back in 2006 and told her about my daughter, she quickly grabbed a sticky note pad and wrote a name down. She said, "If she ever needs surgery, this is who you want. I have been in the OR with him, and if it were my kid, I would want him to do the surgery. Dr. xxx (the other surgeon at CMH who did j-pouches and did them laproscopically) is my neighbor, and he's good, but Dr. yyy is the best."
We had a surgical consult with Dr. yyy set up, but it was canceled (he was out of country on a medical missions trip), so we saw Dr. xxx. It was kind of a weird consult. The guy was almost giddy at the prospect of operating on my kid - who was relatively healthy at the time and not an inpatient. He even had us set a date over Spring Break. Had to tell my wife, "Just because we have a date doesn't mean we have to do the surgery if we don't think it's needed or the timing isn't right."
Poor girl - got to the point in 2008 where she was up going to the bathroom like 5 times a night. Then she started running a fever. We saw her GI and he agreed she should spend a few days in the hospital to give her gut a rest. But the fever... terrible. They had to test her for everything infectious under the sun in order to conclude it was just the UC causing it. We had bumped up the surgery - a couple weeks out from her stay in Feb, 2008. I thought, "You know what? Why would we take her home for a couple weeks? If she gets a fever again, they will cancel the surgery and have to do all those tests all over again. I think I'm going to take Monday off work and go up there with her, and make a case to just do the surgery while she's inpatient. Especially since we were able to keep her off prednisone all this time (better surgical outcome)."
So... I got there on Monday, and the head GI nurse came in and said: "So, Dr. xxx is on rotation this week for surgeries, and we know that's who you wanted to do the surgery. So how about we just keep her here and do the surgery on Wed?" Prayer answered - I didn't even have to ask! Apparently there was a lot of back and forth between Drs. xxx and yyy about who would "get to" do the surgery since Dr. xxx was on rotation that week, but we had the consult with Dr. yyy. Dr. xxx won out, and we couldn't have been happier.
Her surgery lasted almost 6 hours for total colectomy and j-pouch creation. Dr. xxx told us after surgery all went well, but that it took a little longer than usual because it's easier to get "turned around" while in there laproscopically, and they had put the wrong end of her small bowel (the top of the section with the j-pouch through the abdomen for the ostomy, and had to fix that).
Anyway... all's well that ends well (pun intended). She's doing great with her ostomy, and although her underlying immune disease has manifested other ways (rheumatic arthritis, primarily), you wouldn't know she has a j-pouch.
@ElmerFudd posted:Lauren, no - we have an awesome children's hospital here in Kansas City (Children's Mercy Hospital - CMH), and my surgeon won't operate on kids. She has done some surgical consulting (been in the OR) with some of the surgeons at CMH, but my daughter won't start seeing her until next year. She is an awesome doctor & surgeon, by the way.
My surgeon does all follow-up on her j-pouch patients, unless there is ongoing need for a GI (chronic pouchitis, for example). I see her every 2 years now. When I saw her back in 2006 and told her about my daughter, she quickly grabbed a sticky note pad and wrote a name down. She said, "If she ever needs surgery, this is who you want. I have been in the OR with him, and if it were my kid, I would want him to do the surgery. Dr. xxx (the other surgeon at CMH who did j-pouches and did them laproscopically) is my neighbor, and he's good, but Dr. yyy is the best."
We had a surgical consult with Dr. yyy set up, but it was canceled (he was out of country on a medical missions trip), so we saw Dr. xxx. It was kind of a weird consult. The guy was almost giddy at the prospect of operating on my kid - who was relatively healthy at the time and not an inpatient. He even had us set a date over Spring Break. Had to tell my wife, "Just because we have a date doesn't mean we have to do the surgery if we don't think it's needed or the timing isn't right."
Poor girl - got to the point in 2008 where she was up going to the bathroom like 5 times a night. Then she started running a fever. We saw her GI and he agreed she should spend a few days in the hospital to give her gut a rest. But the fever... terrible. They had to test her for everything infectious under the sun in order to conclude it was just the UC causing it. We had bumped up the surgery - a couple weeks out from her stay in Feb, 2008. I thought, "You know what? Why would we take her home for a couple weeks? If she gets a fever again, they will cancel the surgery and have to do all those tests all over again. I think I'm going to take Monday off work and go up there with her, and make a case to just do the surgery while she's inpatient. Especially since we were able to keep her off prednisone all this time (better surgical outcome)."
So... I got there on Monday, and the head GI nurse came in and said: "So, Dr. xxx is on rotation this week for surgeries, and we know that's who you wanted to do the surgery. So how about we just keep her here and do the surgery on Wed?" Prayer answered - I didn't even have to ask! Apparently there was a lot of back and forth between Drs. xxx and yyy about who would "get to" do the surgery since Dr. xxx was on rotation that week, but we had the consult with Dr. yyy. Dr. xxx won out, and we couldn't have been happier.
Her surgery lasted almost 6 hours for total colectomy and j-pouch creation. Dr. xxx told us after surgery all went well, but that it took a little longer than usual because it's easier to get "turned around" while in there laproscopically, and they had put the wrong end of her small bowel (the top of the section with the j-pouch through the abdomen for the ostomy, and had to fix that).
Anyway... all's well that ends well (pun intended). She's doing great with her ostomy, and although her underlying immune disease has manifested other ways (rheumatic arthritis, primarily), you wouldn't know she has a j-pouch.
Wow that is quite a story at least it worked out. Does she want to get rid of the ostomy one day and get connected to the J-pouch (takedown)??
@Lauren Of Emerald City posted:Wow that is quite a story at least it worked out. Does she want to get rid of the ostomy one day and get connected to the J-pouch (takedown)??
Oh yes. She had her takedown in April, 2011 (only had her ostomy for 2 months).
Oh good! I am glad to hear that! You both have been through heck! Especially you! You both are soo strong! I am glad your other daughter did not get sick