UPDATE 1(May 4,2001)

My CAT scan came back negative, and my blood work is great. BUT...Well on April 30th I had to go see my GI doc again..I discovered a lump right below my ileostomy. He said it was a hernia. He said that if it got worse to let him know about it. I had been having some pain from it, and now the hernia is even larger. I called to his office again on May,4th,2001. I was told to go back to my colon surgeon for him to take a look at it. I see my surgeon on Monday the 7th of May. I may have to get my reversal done alot sooner because of the hernia. I just don't want something stupid happening to my small intestine-like getting the blood supply cut off-and having it die, then being stuck with a permanent ileostomy! Originally my surgeon wanted to wait atleast a good 6 months before reversing my ileostomy. He wanted to give my body enough time to build itself back up from all the previous surgeries, and my blood had been pretty bad. They don't want to take ANY chances with me this time. I think my body has had enough done to it for these past 6 months already!! Some people have 4 surgeries in their entire life time, and I'm going to be having my 4th surgery in just the past 5 or 6 months. Anything is better than having this ileostomy.

I just wish that when I was first diagnosed that my doctor would have told me that sometimes people with Crohns disease need an ileostomy to rest the bowel, or they need it due to a complication. No one ever told me that there was a possibility that someday I would need an ileostomy -just temporary, or permanent. Yes, before my first surgery they made a little tatoo thingy on my belly where they would place an ileostomy if they needed to, like if they opened me up and discovered that the disease was alot worse than they thought and wasn't healthy enough to connect back together or something. I just think it would have been alot easier for me to accept the fact that people with Crohns DO get ileostomies!

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