I have an appreciated ileostomy! A long somewhat grueling process. I have inflammatory bowel disease, and a small host of other goings on. First surgery in 1996 for total cholectomy Ileorectal anastomosis and a J-Pouch.
Good until about 2006 . Then a long illness ending in severe malnutrition and a 13 1/2 month hospital stay in two different hospitals, one, a good six hour drive each way for my family to see me on Saturdays. During the first six months time I had 6 emergency surgeries. A final surgery in 2009 ended with my ileostomy. It proceeded to be a time of great personal struggle and some frustration and a lot of tears. Painfully, five months after being discharged from the hospital, my hubby was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. No symptoms before hand other then recent kidney stones. He died five months after my ileostomy. I began to question whether my illness and all the travelling had been what brought on his cancer. All that talk of stress you know. At any rate I gave myself a pep talk and realized that with all the cancer in his family, it was destined to hit him or his siblings at some point. I just pray that there is enough of my DNA in our kids that it stays away from them. In a seven year span we lost 11 of his close relatives to various cancers. Since. I have been relatively healthy for what I deal with. However, the same malabsorption that had me in its grip in 2006 has struck again. I am managing fairly well thru this time.