Going with my Gut: A Journey to Wellness

Some happy news first! I had my pouchogram yesterday to "determine the integrity" of my J-Pouch. It's basically a short procedure where they take a lot of x-rays of your J-Pouch to see if there are any leaks (you wouldn't want poo escaping from it's designated pathways and swimming around your body!). The x-rays showed that my J-Pouch is leak-free and that means I'm another step closer to reconnection surgery! March 21 is my surgery date if all continues to go well. Wahoo! This next part is about my ostomy pouch (external, covers the stoma), not to be confused with the J-Pouch (internal reservoir made of my small intestine). I enjoyed a nice 2 week stretch without any ostomy pouch leaks, but, unfortunately, I've had several leaky incidents in the last week. It's really the grossest thing and if anyone's interested, I'm happy to share the details with you, but I'll spare you all right now :) The leaks are especially frustrating because I d

It's been a little while since I last updated and I have some positive milestones to share. Hopefully they will brighten your day since we are all consuming a lot of negative news these days. Happy things: 1. I am medicine-free! This means I finished my steroid taper!! I had been on Prednisone for the last 2+ years and would flare every time I tried to taper. Being off steroids is very exciting news for my adrenal glands, my bone density, my mood, my moon face, and my sleep. This is also a necessary prereq for my next surgery, so I'm getting one step closer to reconnecting.  2. I have been discharged from visiting nurse services. It was actually a little sad to get discharged since I really liked my ostomy nurse, but now I have all the tools and confidence I need. It feels a little bit like I graduated from an ostomy training program.  3. I haven't had a Lilo leakage in the last week! I'm always a little on edge, ready to deal with a leak, but I hope that I won