Update

November 9, 2009

I have been doing really well physically lately. On the 23rd I have an appointment with Dr. G, my GI doc. I decided to keep track of my bowel movements (frequency and consistency) for a couple of days to get a more objective idea of how I'm doing in preparation for that appointment. They always ask me questions about that, "So how many bowel movements are you having a day now?" And, "What is the consistency?" It's always so hard for me to answer because it depends on so many things. Also, I might have an evening where I've gone once an hour, but the rest of the day I went every four hours, so it's been hard for me to gage because what I remember is that I had gone every hour one evening. Of course what I eat plays a big factor in all this too. I've also been keeping a food journal - writing down everything I've eaten. But I'll tell you, writing down my bowel movements is much, much harder for me mentally than the food journal.

People who were with me when I was in the hospital know why keeping track of my BMs is so difficult. My mom stayed with me overnight in the hospital when I was going to the bathroom sometimes every 20 to 40 minutes. She knew I couldn't bear to write it all down, it was so discouraging, so she would wake up with me (as if she ever fell asleep), and write down the time, all night long. And then it reached the point where my hands were too swollen for me to write, so Jeremy or my dad or whoever else was stuck there in the hospital room with us would write it down for me. We didn't just do this for a day either, mind you. It was basically the entire time I was hospitalized that we had to do this, and there was a lot riding on how frequently I was going. Like whether I was going to need surgery to have my colon removed or not, which also, at one point, meant whether we might have to risk Harper too. We scribbled little notes next to each time entry too: blood, watery, soupy, lots of blood, cramps, etc. Every single day we went over the entries with the GI docs.

So when I track my BMs now, some of those memories come drifting back. But as I was saying before, things are going well. I would say on average I have 8 bowel movements a day, at least one if not two of those is during the night. And what has been surprising to me is that many of my bowel movements are actually pretty solid in consistency. When I had my colon removed, my doctors and surgeons told me not to anticipate having solid bowel movements again. Granted, one serving of salsa or an apple and my next BM will not be solid, but the fact that I can have solid BMs is quite an accomplishment, I'd say! The more solid they are, the less I have to worry about dehydration too.

In addition to all that, for the most part, my body feels normal to me. There is no more pelvic pain (except when I ovulate, which never used to happen to me - so maybe there's some scar tissue there now, but that's okay). It does feel different when I have BMs. Not to go into too much detail (but we're already there now, aren't we?), but when I do have BMs, they are much smaller in shape and come out differently than they did before. I don't really know how to explain it to you, except that it feels different to go too. But even that I'm getting used to now.

I have a couple of concerns to address with Dr. G at my next appointment. I feel pain in the area of one of my surgery scars when I cough or sneeze, and there's a spot on my abdomen that pops out a little when I do those things - so I'm guessing I have a hernia, but it hasn't concerned me too much. I just want to talk with him about that. I haven't been doing my nightly enemas lately and there has been no blood in my stool, so I'm really happy about that. I'm wondering about going on oral medications for that now since it seems like I'm in remission with the remaining UC in my body. I also just want to talk to him about my long term prognosis as far as whether I'll need to have my remaining rectum removed or not. And then both Jeremy and I really want to go over my Cipro use and whether I in fact have chronic pouchitis or not. Finally, I do want to talk to him about what he thinks about my ability to carry a baby. I know, I know - we've started the adoption process, but I still want to have some questions answered. I've had my surgeon and my OB talk with me about it, but realized I had never really talked with Dr. G about it. We're still moving forward with the adoption though - it's just that I need to have some questions answered. Don't worry!

So that's the update on my physical being. I'm grateful that a year post-j-pouch creation I'm doing this well. I honestly did not think I would ever get to this place. And it hasn't even been a year yet since I had my takedown surgery! (Again, for more information on what a j-pouch is, go to http://www.jpouch.org/ and click on the "illustrated pouch" section - you'll learn a lot!)