ED,
My colon over a period of about 2 or 3 months just stopped passing. It's called idiopathic constipation. Or constipation without cause. Other than 12 to 14 Ez-lax a day, nothing would help. Fiber made it worse, much worse.
The worry was developing mega-colon. The VA and/or the University of Washington Hospital did not know what to do with me.
After months of looking, I found a doctor that had dealt with this problem. Talked to a couple of his patients, who had good outcomes. The idea was to shorten the colon. Received the operation; things went very well for about 2 weeks. Then leakage from an unknown area, peritonitis (sp) the result. The surgeon could not find the leak. So instead of just giving me a temp ileostomy and letting things heal up, the arrogant ass cut the rest of my colon out.
He did not tell me of this until 6 months later.
A long story. I found another surgeon that fixes other surgeons' screw-ups. Several operations later, I now have a J pouch. I have had the pouch for about 13 months. It has its problems, believe me. Remember, I was not dealing with Crohn's, U/C, or cancer. My gut was not diseased. The peristaltic muscle movement just stopped. May have been Agent Orange; no one knows. I do have a full rectum, which makes the J pouch work much better than most.
I have the J pouch trying to act as colon and a storage plus the rectum. As long as I take Lomotil, I am for the most part alright. I was taking 8 plus a day; that was not enough.
I am at about 6 per day, with a longer day. By that, I mean I was sleeping more, which gave me fewer movements a day. However, now, I eat almost nothing during the day.
With the J pouch, I have never had an accident, even while sleeping. Which is unheard of early in the life of a J pouch. I do the Kegel exercise all the time on my anus muscle.
I do get a lot of cramping, mostly late in the day. Mostly from gas. My diet is extremely (sp) restrictive. Mostly protein. I can tolerate small amounts of V-8 juice and apples.
If my girlfriend had not left me over this deal, I may have stayed with the ileostomy.
My system is still evolving from the surgeries. The first 7 months with the J pouch were a nightmare. I said to myself, if this is all there is, the bag is better. I couldn't get away from a toilet. The only way I could manage is simply do not eat, nothing in, nothing out!
For people getting a J pouch that do not have a rectum, I just can't see how the J pouch would work at all.
It is better now, somewhere in the middle of being "normal" or having an ileostomy.
I wrote a 5-page synopsis of the surgeries, sent it out to several medical malpractice attorneys. Most agreed the first surgeon "botched," their words, the operation. However, to prove malpractice would be difficult to impossible. The surgeons simply have too much latitude for decision-making when the patient is under. Even if prior instructions were given.
Hope this helps, as always pardon the spelling.
Rick.....
