The J-Pouch Explained in Plain English.

The J-Pouch Explained in Plain English.

A common conversation in my life…

Me: So I have IBD and because of it I had to have my colon and rectum removed and I now have a J-pouch. 

Person: Soooooo….[eyes look at my body searching for an external ostomy bag] how do you go to the bathroom?Me: Just like anyone else. Person: So you don’t have a colostomy bag? 

Me: *rolls eyes [it’s ileostomy you fool!]* No I don’t, my pouch is internal and it’s made out of my small intestine. 

Person: *stunned look on their face which quickly changes to confusion* Oh. Well I’m glad you’re okay! 

 

 

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What is Phantom Rectum?

Phantom Rectum is the ghost of your rectum past haunting ostomates and others who no longer have, or no longer use, their rectums. The Phantom Rectum tricks these unsuspecting patients with sensations that they have to evacuate their bowels via the rectum that they used to use.

So I made that definition up but it pretty much sums it up!

Well… sort of.

Basically phantom rectum is…

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Size Double Zero Jeans for Christmas

Everything felt different after coming home. I was different. Six months is a long time but in a way it’s also not very much time at all. Not enough time to wrap your head around an ostomy, a J-pouch, what surgery does, and everything else that had happened. So while my hospitalization felt like it was forever, in the grand scheme of things…

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6 Months Inpatient: Picking Up the Pieces of My Life After J-Pouch Surgery

IT WAS SNOWING, THERE WERE PEOPLE OUT THERE, THIS WAS LIFE. IT WAS GOING ON WITHOUT ME ALL THIS TIME WHILE I HAD BEEN IN THAT BUILDING.

People had been shopping, they already purchased their Christmas gifts, they’ve been doing things and my life had been on pause since July. That felt strange. It felt strange that I had entered the hospital in early July when it was summer and I was leaving when it was snowing. How did this happen? How was this my life? How did six months go by?

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Accepting Your New Body After J-Pouch or Ostomy Surgery

I actually had some pretty dark and hateful thoughts about ostomies that were shaped by fear and not by truth. I don’t like admitting it but I think it’s important to speak openly about and I know that others have had similar thoughts as mine before learning the truth about ostomies. I thought they were gross, smelly, unattractive, and that I would need to hide myself. I figured I would have to…

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4 Years After J-Pouch Surgery; Was it Worth It?

No one just says remove my colon without thinking it over once or twice or a million times. I didn’t really have a decision to make because my surgery was an emergency surgery after I came in through the ER and was hospitalized and a colonoscopy couldn’t even be performed safely without risk of perforation because my colon was so inflamed.

I was told I needed to have surgery, not given the option. That doesn’t mean I didn’t think and re-think surgery every second of every minute leading up to it. I knew life would forever be different and I had no idea what the future had in store for me. I was going to live the rest of my life without my colon and rectum and I couldn’t wrap my brain around how crazy that was.

Was this really happening to me?

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Does Surgery Cure Ulcerative Colitis?

The removal of the colon and rectum has long been said to be a cure for ulcerative colitis but there is much debate by patients and clinicians on whether or not that is true. As time has passed and understanding of IBD has changed the word cure doesn’t seem…

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Grieving the Loss of My Colon to Acceptance: A Journey

Part of grieving the loss of my colon was thinking about how I would never be a “normal” person ever again. My body was going to look and work differently from now on. There was no going back and everything felt very unfair. I was already isolated because I was in the hospital for 6 months and before that had been extremely sick the year leading up to my surgeries which resulted in me having to leave school and lose my job. After my surgeries I isolated myself even more by shutting down and pushing everyone away. There was a point that my depression…

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J-Pouch Surgery: Was It Worth It?

I woke with my entire midline scar having been cut open again so my surgeon could run my bowels and do lysis of adhesions. My stoma and ostomy bag were gone and I had staples through my midline scar again and my ostomy was no longer there. Instead I had a hole in my abdomen that was packed with gauze. For the next few days it would be packed with gauze a few more times and then it was left…

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