So I just had my second of three surgeries on June 1
and I am now 1 step closer to being “back to normal.”
Here are the details of Curtis’s 2nd Colon surgery:
My second surgery was on June 1, 2011. This surgery the doctors went in using the DaVinci Robot to construct a “J Pouch” out of my small intestine and connect my small intestine back to the rectum. They then pulled my small intestine back out of my stomach, giving me a “loop Ileostomy” this time instead of an “end ileostomy”. A loop ileostomy is different because they don’t cut the intestine, they just pull it out from the middle and put a little bar
Curtis after his 1st surgery
underneath it so it doesn’t go back into my stomach. This is also different because it is higher up in my intestine than before and it also has 2 holes where stuff comes out. You can ask what comes out if you want, I don’t want to get too detailed though, haha.
So the surgery went well and I was in the hospital until yesterday (6/6/11) just recovering and making sure I could eat again and do everything like normal. This time around was 1000 times different than my first surgery. My first surgery, I was 118 pounds and pretty much on my deathbed. The days following the surgery I couldn’t walk on my own, and I needed a cane to walk for almost 2 weeks and I was in a lot of pain from the surgery.
Going into this next surgery I was a healthy 152 pounds and felt like normal! My normal weight is about 155-165 pounds, it sort of fluctuates. This time, I was able to to walk the day after surgery with just having my arm around someone for a little balance while walking, and then 2 days after I was walking on my own with no problems. I was in less pain than before, even though this surgery was more intense than the first one. Now I’m at home and am already taking less pain pills than I was after the first time and am trying to get myself completely off of them ASAP! Hopefully I will recover from this one faster that the first one, I’m pretty sure that it’s almost impossible for me to not recover faster, haha. I have more incisions though because they had to do a little slice open on me to do some stuff but other than that, 4 small incisions from the DaVinci!
So I only have one more surgery after this one and I’ll be all completed. The take-down will be about 2 months from now so we’re looking at an August surgery. I know the recovery from that one will be quite different and will probably take a little longer but it will be one step closer to being bag free and I won’t have to deal with that Ulcerative Colitis pain I was experiencing in the beginning of 2011. It’s been quite a year to say the least.
That’s it for now, I’ll throw some updates on here a little later too.
Hope everyone is doing well and people out there understand that surgery isn’t that bad!! I couldn’t be happier right now!
Current Medications: Absolutely NONE!
You can read all of Curtis’s Stories Here
AND, check out Curtis’s new line of T-Shirts HERE
Curtis is a young guy who developed a very rapid case of severe ulcerative colitis symptoms in early 2011. Shortly afterwards as when medications were failing to solve his problems, he had only one option left which was surgery, and he is hanging in there and doing great. Curtis is an expert soccer player and has his own line of T-Shirts he creates too.
