You know those commercials with the women that is being followed by a redhead that represents her colon? The advertisement is for a medication to treat irritable bowel syndrome and although I do not have IBS (or a colon at that), I can not help but to relate.
Training a new organ to function in your body is challenging, to say the least. My j-pouch is a surgeon-made organ derived from part of my small intestine that now has the job of functioning like a normal organ in harmony with the rest of my (greatly shortened) digestive system. Kind of a big job for a little guy, huh? Training my j-pouch takes a great deal of patience on my part and a little cooperation from my body along the way.
In medical time, my j-pouch is still a baby! It can take up to a year for it to begin to "mature" and several years to be fully "trained."
I have to remind myself of this during the times when my j-pouch is not quite behaving and it seems as if that little redhead from the commercial is pulling me around. Oh, you are at the grocery store? We are going to the restroom.. right now! Oh, you are making plans with friends? Not without a few trips to the restroom first. Oh, you are trying to sleep? We are going to get up at 11 and 2 and 4 and even 6! Sleep has been one of most affected parts of my life besides food when I came home with my j-pouch. While most nights I can sleep with only a couple of interruptions, some nights that little redheaded commercial character is wide awake and wanting to go, go, go! I am met the next morning with tired eyes and dark circles from the interrupted sleep.
But it will all improve in time. I am confident in that. It is incredible enough to me that a man-made organ can be surgically created and provide patients like me with a second chance at fighting their illnesses. The body must first heal from the major surgeries involved in creating the organ, but then learn to accept the organ and work in harmony with it. How amazing is that? The next time you doubt that your body can do something- think again. Our bodies are truly miracles.
This week brought another exciting step in my recovery journey, as on Monday, June 26th, I returned to work only 6 weeks after major surgery. This was an exciting, but nerve-wrecking step in my recovery as I feared the unknowns of my new body. What if I get too tired? What if I need to use the restroom during a busy time in my shift? What if my post-operative pain becomes too much and I need to lay down? My mind was flooded with worries before my shift. But by now, I have proven to myself that I am much stronger than I believe.
My worries melted away when I walked through the glass doors of the pool that I have worked at as a lifeguard, concessions worker, admissions worker, and assistant manager at for almost 9 years. I let go of my worries and trusted in the strength of my healing body.
There is no definite amount of time that patients who have undergone the same surgeries take off from work. For some, it is only 6 weeks, but for other it could be 6 months or even a year. When your body is trying to accept a new organ, there is no rushing and no definite timelines. Over the last several weeks, I have dedicated myself to walking every single day, practicing yoga, and strengthening my body so that it would be prepared for my return to work.
Returning to work was completely my decision. No one was pressuring or rushing me to return. My local surgeon even applauded my dedication, but also included a stern warning.
Autoimmune diseases, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, love stress. Stress is bad for everyone, but for someone battling an Inflammatory Bowel Disease such as Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's Disease, stress can be detrimental to their health. Even with a j-pouch, I am susceptible to flares of pouchitis and other inflammation-based problems brought upon by stress. Additionally, because Ulcerative Colitis is an autoimmune disease, my body loves to attack itself. With an overactive immune system, my body confuses its own healthy cells with those that are bad. Therefore, weakening my defenses against my own body can welcome many other chronic conditions.
So the warning from my local surgeon was brief, but serious, and was to do my best to limit stress and not wear my body down too much. The last thing I want is complications with my j-pouch or the introduction of additional problems related to my autoimmune disease.
Without stressing too much, my summer will also bring consideration to my capstone project for the spring. It is hard to believe that I have less than a year left in West Virginia University's Masters of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications Program. Nearly half of all of my classes that I have taken thus far in the program have been completed from a hospital bed. A lot of people ask me how- and why- I stayed in the program throughout the last year, but the answer is simply that it provided me a temporary distraction from the environment around me. I was able to learn from and communicate with other professionals and challenge myself. Giving up the program simply was not an option for me. Even if it meant turning in assignments hours after surgery, writing papers one sentence at a time between rounds of nausea and vomiting, brainstorming projects from the back of an ambulance, and sometimes working 2 weeks ahead in class to make sure my assignments were on-time, I was not about to use my illness as an excuse.
June 9th marked a year in the program and man, has it been quite the journey! I am so excited to walk across the stage spring 2018, as it will represent so much more than just earning a master's degree.
But for now, I am taking things one day at a time. With severe pain from what the doctors think are adhesions from surgery and nerves waking up still, I have to self-limit myself sometimes despite my want to get out and move. Some days I just cannot do everything that I would like to- and that is 100% OK. Returning to work this week was yet another example of not using my illness as an excuse. Instead of an excuse, my illness has and will always be encouragement and motivation to keep going.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! More blogs will be on the way soon!
"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."
- Kristen