The Surgeries

I feel as if I have learned an incredible amount about our digestive system going through this process and of course I want to share it all.

Although there are many different ways for people to have their large intestine removed (or partially removed), I am only going to talk about my experience.

I was going to have the process done in two surgeries. During the first surgery, the doctors would remove the large intestine. The surgeons would also cut my small intestine into two pieces. The top part would be pulled through an opening in my abdomen (about 1.5 inches wide), this piece of small intestine and the opening is called the stoma. The lower part of my small intestine was sutured into a J-Pouch, which would later act as my large intestine.

Since the stoma moves involuntarily and pushes out your feces without any thought or work on your part, there is a bag that attaches to you like a big bandaid that will catch the feces. This is the bag you will need to empty and change. I had my "temporary ileostomy" (stoma and its bag) for eight weeks while the lower part of the small intestine healed. 

I was able to get in for my resection in eight weeks. This is when the surgeons go back in an attach the top part of the small intestine with the lower part and they close the stoma opening.

It was a piece of cake.