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Hey, I'm 18 years old and had the takedown surgery for a temporary ileostomy on July 10th. I was diagnosed with UC when I was 7 or so and had my colon removed and replaced with the J pouch when I was 10. I gave it almost a full year and eventually threw in the towel due to both chronic pouchitis and a lack of improvement. Has anyone else had a situation where they went back to the j pouch after several years to give it one more shot? So far things are not so great with it and I'm planning on returning to the ileostomy (which I loved) on August 28th.
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Oh...that darn auto correct! Lol. Can you give your j pouch a little more time to adjust? You just had the reversal a month ago and August 28th is so soon to go back to the ileo. At the very least you should give your body more time to heal between surgeries. Either way, I hope it all works out for you. Best wishes!
I'm just wondering what the rationale would be for going back to it after 8 years, especially if you had so much trouble with it the first time (chronic pouchitis) and because you were so happy with the ileostomy? You also don't really mention what problems you are having now. The "problems" could simply be the normal transition. In the early stages, most people experience high frequency, spasms and even leaking. It's unfortunately the normal course. It's more unusual for a pouch patient to wake up from surgery going 3-4 times a day and eating whatever they want. We all wish that could be us! But we have to be patient. Furthermore, you've barely been connected for a month, and that is not enough time at all to adjust to the pouch. The transition period is slow and gradual--you probably won't have any noticeable changes until 8 weeks, 3 months, even 6 months down the road. The other thing is that you've had the ileostomy for so long (almost longer than you had your colon!), not to mention while you were young, so it can certainly can be strange going to a pouch and actually going to the bathroom the conventional way when it's almost foreign to you.

To be honest, I would give it at least 3 months, even 6 months if you can, before making a final decision. It can be a bumpy road, but when you look back you may be glad you did this. Since you've already gone to the extreme of having surgery and takedown again, at least give the pouch a little bit of a chance. Whatever happens, I hope it works out for you! Best of luck.
Thanks for all the support. After the last surgery my j-pouch immediately became inflamed leading to a horrible week before my surgeon prescribed Cipro which took care of it for a week at which point the pouchitis came back. Without lomotil I would be using the bathroom around 2-3 times an hour, the lomotil shortens that to about once every hour and 10 minutes (I've kept track). I also take fiber and probiotics but those don't seem to do what they're supposed to be doing either. I occasionally have continence issues at night but those aren't so bad. The reason I decided to try the jpouch again was because my parents and I surmised that maybe the reason the jpouch had failed when I was younger was because I was still not very healthy from recovering from the UC (I had a one step surgery). After 11 months of the j pouch not adjusting and constant pouchitis I threw in the towel. I wanted to satisfy my curiosity and see if things would work the second time but according to most benchmarks that I've read about mine doesn't seem to be functioning as well as it should and to be honest I'm not willing to be unhealthy and miserable for months just so I don't have an ileostomy.

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