Surgery - again :(

So, I know this blog is supposed to be about Ella, but this one is about me. Again, I'm copying a post from another place. This time it's a note from Facebook (no sense in rewriting all this stuff, right?).

Back story: 9 years ago I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC). After 9 months of continuous flare up, I had to switch GI specialists for insurance purposes. The new GI specialist decided to try an aggressive treatment and put me in the hospital over the weekend. The treatment didn't work and that Monday afternoon, she recommended surgery to remove my colon. After talking with the surgeon for over an hour and then meeting with a young girl that had the same surgery, I decided it was the best thing for me. So, eight years ago, I had a total colectomy with a j pouch. The pouch is actually made from 2 loops of my small intestine and keeps me from having a colostomy bag (that's the non TMI version). I have been fine since the surgery other than a few infections here and there over the years. Nothing that a dose of antibiotics couldn't fix.

Fast forward 4 years when I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). I have been on medication since then to help keep the symptoms at bay. The medication also keeps the UC in remission.

Now that you're caught up, here's what's going on today. When I became pregnant, I had to stop taking the medication for the RA. I was very fortunate that my body produced some mad hormones that kept the RA from flaring. Unfortunately, during the 3rd trimester, I started having issues with the UC. I now know that it was not b/c I was pregnant that I had these issues, but b/c I was not able to take the medication.

So, my surgeon had been treating the issues during the pregnancy and wanted to do some more exploration after Ella's arrival to see what was causing the issues. That was the reason for the CT scan last week. On Friday, I found out that the issues are coming from my pouch. It apparently has a hole in it that is the root of the issues. When I asked the surgeon what may have caused the hole, she said she would know more after surgery, but she is almost positive that I actually have Crohn's Disease (the difference between UC and Crohn's is that UC only affects your large intestine or colon and Crohn's can affect both your small and large intestine).

The surgeon has decided that the best course of action is to give me a temporary illeostomy for 3 months, which will give the pouch time to rest and hopefully heal itself. If it hasn't healed itself after 1 month, she will go in and repair it herself. The reason she doesn't want to go in and repair it right away is b/c it's a much more invasive procedure to do that. The ileostomy only requires 3-4 days in the hospital and hopefully no more than a week recovery time.

The ileostomy (first surgery) is scheduled for May 22nd at 12:30 PM. The only thing that keeps my mind off this dreaded date and what will come afterwards is knowing that I get a little extra time at home with my Ella Bella. I'm really looking forward to that!