J pouch day 6

It's been a bit of a tough few days, so I haven't really been on here to update!

Nothing serious has happened at all, but I am in quite a bit of pain from the surgery in several areas. The stoma site wound hurts a lot more than I imagined it would, particularly when I'm changing the dressing. I'm also getting cramps in the pouch, in my stomach/abdo muscles, and a LOT of butt burn. It's obviously early days and I'm sure all of these things are going to improve, but when they're all at once they're quite uncomfortable.

Although I don't have accidents when I sleep, for the past few nights I've woken up several times to use the loo, which has disrupted my sleep quite a bit. I'm sure this will also improve. I think I need to accept that late night snacking is not a good thing - at least not while it's such early days! I'm still currently going to the loo about 8-10 times a day, but this will no doubt decrease over the next few weeks and months. I've had no leaks or accidents though, and it's possible to hold off going to the toilet for up to half an hour or even a bit more if I need it.

However, it's now starting to dawn on me that I really no longer have the stoma bag - and it's actually such a liberating feeling. The other day I came out of the toilet and had a momentary panic that my bag was hanging out/not tucked into my leggings - then realising with a smile that I don't have to think about that anymore. At moments when I've had the most awful butt burn, I've had a second of longing for my stoma back - but no more than a second. I know that what I'm experiencing now will improve, and I'm really happy that I went through with the reversal.

I'm eating a mix of bland things - and I'm already gradually adding to my diet. I've now tried carrots, broccoli and soft-boiled cabbage, all of which down pretty easily. This was the platter of snacks I ate the other night - all went down a treat:

I'm currently resting most of the time and putting my feet up - I'm catching up on lots of daytime telly! I finished off the last of my Christmas shopping online today, which my dad is kindly going in to pick up for me. In the next few days I'm hoping to start some holiday reading for the next uni term - at least I can do that with my feet up.

On Monday I'll be giving my pouch its first 'outing' as me, my parents, my best mate and her parents are going round the corner to the pub for a meal. It's pretty much in sight of the house, so not exactly a monster milestone, but it's definitely a start somewhere.