A few months ago I was asked to be part of a campaign for UC Irvine Medical Center where I had all my surgeries. There are four of us patients featured and the campaign is finally out! You can see my story at:
www.healthcare.uci.edu/surgery/colorectal/ (the "Spotlight" on the right side)
www.ucihealth.com (the pictures on the top rotate and mine is the second one)
My add is also going to be in the Orange County Register on October 31 and The LA Times-OC section on November 7.
For those who don't live in Orange County, my ad should also be on OC Register and LA Times online on October 24th.
I am so excited to be a part of this campaign and to get the word out about Ulcerative Colitis!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Surgery Number 4
So I got home a couple days ago from the hospital after having surgery number 4: Surgery to tack down my j-pouch to my tailbone. Yep, it was as wonderful as it sounds. I will continue this chapter of the saga from my last post so that I don't have to repeat everything. If you read my last post you will know that I ended up in the hospital because my j-pouch twisted. I am one of the lucky but unlucky ones who apparently doesn't grow a lot of scar tissue. See, most people who have the j-pouch grow enough scar tissue to hold the pouch in place. I, on the other hand, did not so my pouch decided to have a little party in my abdomen, doing the twist all over the place.
Anyway, after my last hospital visit, my surgeon wanted to wait a little bit to see if things would essentially fix themselves so that we could avoid this surgery. Well a couple weeks later I was all twisted up again, so back in the hospital I went and this time surgery was a definite. Four days after being admitted to the hospital, surgery was on. When my doctor opened me up he found that my pouch had basically twisted around 360 degrees, pulling more intestine down with it underneath a fat pad that grows behind the intestines. I know, totally weird! So, my doc straightened me out, tacked down a piece of dissolvable mesh to my tailbone, and sewed my pouch in two different places to the mesh. The hope is that by the time the mesh dissolves, which takes about a year, enough scar tissue will grow in its place to hold my pouch in place. Keep your fingers crossed! While he was in there, my doc also revised the scar where my stoma was so that it's now a flatter straight line instead of an indented circle, which I am thrilled about. So once again, I have four incisions that need to heal, but all of them are incisions that were used in previous surgeries: Two laproscopic incisions, the stoma incision, and the bikini line incision from my second surgery.
I am now home recovering after 12 days in the hospital because my intestine decided to stay asleep longer than it should have and I'm hoping that this will be the last chapter in the J-pouch Saga. I've got some work ahead of me since from the time this mess started until now I've lost almost 15 pounds, so I have a lot of weight to gain, once again. I'm working my way up with food, hoping to try some plain pasta tonight and hoping to be eating some baby back ribs and french fries in a couple weeks!
Anyway, after my last hospital visit, my surgeon wanted to wait a little bit to see if things would essentially fix themselves so that we could avoid this surgery. Well a couple weeks later I was all twisted up again, so back in the hospital I went and this time surgery was a definite. Four days after being admitted to the hospital, surgery was on. When my doctor opened me up he found that my pouch had basically twisted around 360 degrees, pulling more intestine down with it underneath a fat pad that grows behind the intestines. I know, totally weird! So, my doc straightened me out, tacked down a piece of dissolvable mesh to my tailbone, and sewed my pouch in two different places to the mesh. The hope is that by the time the mesh dissolves, which takes about a year, enough scar tissue will grow in its place to hold my pouch in place. Keep your fingers crossed! While he was in there, my doc also revised the scar where my stoma was so that it's now a flatter straight line instead of an indented circle, which I am thrilled about. So once again, I have four incisions that need to heal, but all of them are incisions that were used in previous surgeries: Two laproscopic incisions, the stoma incision, and the bikini line incision from my second surgery.
I am now home recovering after 12 days in the hospital because my intestine decided to stay asleep longer than it should have and I'm hoping that this will be the last chapter in the J-pouch Saga. I've got some work ahead of me since from the time this mess started until now I've lost almost 15 pounds, so I have a lot of weight to gain, once again. I'm working my way up with food, hoping to try some plain pasta tonight and hoping to be eating some baby back ribs and french fries in a couple weeks!
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