My recovery has been going well, all things considered. The plan was that I’d have a temporary ileostomy to let the surgery site heal without being irritated by stool flow, but we had to correct or remove much more of my bowel than originally intended, so my ileostomy is in fact a jejunostomy, because my jejunum is the closest bit of healthy bowel. Because of that, I’ve only got about 50cm of my small bowel in use currently, which means I’ve got short bowel syndrome until my reversal. I rely on total parenteral nutrition to keep me hydrated and well-nourished, otherwise I would pretty much be unable to survive, because the bit of intestine currently still in use is too short to absorb food or water adequately. But I was already on TPN at the time of my surgery (I was incredibly underweight from the Crohn’s flare, so I was started on TPN in the summer) so not a lot has changed for me.
Apart from adjusting to the stoma and the short bowel syndrome, recovery has been fine. I was in the hospital for a month because they couldn’t arrange for me to have TPN at home for many weeks, but I was probably fit enough to go home by the second week. I wasn‘t in much pain after my surgery at all because they gave me a spinal anaesthetic injection before they opened me up. Once I was walking and various tubes (a catheter, my cannula for my pain meds, the surgical drain in my abdomen) were removed I improved really quickly. But my surgery was sort of an emergency, and I wasn’t in the most optimal state physically (I was trying to gain weight for the surgery, but I was so close to perforation we ditched that idea before I hit my target) so my recovery took a little longer than the average person’s . It was still much faster than I expected it to be, though! As soon as I left the hospital a month after surgery I went straight back to work and I’ve been chugging along quite fine ever since.
