Part II - decided to publish in two parts because it was getting too long.
day 5
Breakfast: 6am coffee and oatmeal
pouching before heading off to class 6:45am consistency of liquid peanut butter. What the heck?? All I can think is it must be the remains of the black beans I had in my lunch yesterday, but, there wasn't a ton of them. And, I didn't eat any peanut butter.... Also, a bit of black bean clogged up the cath but not enough to make me stop, dig it out and start again (thankfully). In the bathroom about 7-8 minutes. I know I'm not completely empty "scraping the bottom of the barrel" but empty enough I should be fine until after lunch.
Lunch: 1pm went out with a friend had chix noodle soup, bread and an apple (no skin)
pouching about 3:45 when I got home and feeling full but not desperate. Good consistency but still a little sluggish. Still, out in 5 ok.
Dinner: 6:15pm baked potato (no skin) and turkey sausage
pouching at 7pm. ugh. fiber everywhere. what is it? apple? carrot? I dunno. All I know is I'm working the cath, moving it in and out, pressing on my belly, trying all the tricks. *sigh* I can't see any chunks, nothing is really clogging up anything its just... I dunno. apple I guess fibrous micro-morsels of apple. 10 minutes and i'm done just because I'm sick of messing with it. Should all come out by bedtime. bleh.
Empty b/f bed. 9:30 Amazingly enough the addition of potatoes at dinner did not make it worse. In fact, things went a little better, still fibrous bits of potato and a few black bean stow-aways. Not a huge problem, irrigated a couple of times and feeling nice and empty. still took about 10 mins. *sigh*
day 6
Breakfast: 6:30a coffee and cream of wheat
Pouching b/f class at 7am. Looks like potatoes are not the enemy - hooray. However, the skin around my stoma is looking a little red and angry. I put some stomahesive powder on it, and I will make sure to change my nursing pad (its what I use to cover feza) every time I empty for a while. In and out in 5
Lunch: 1pm grapefruit, spaghetti squash, ham yogurt (yes, I know I eat weird :oP )
Pouching at 2pm not really feeling the need to empty but I know I will later and don't want to mess with it at school. Also, meeting a friend for dinner after class so....
perfect consistency. Peristomal skin still not looking so good so I put some anti-fungal powder on this time. That usually clears things up in a day or so.
Dinner: 5:30 Chicken nuggets and chicken noodle soup
Home and pouching at 7:30p. Feeling very full and the invisible spaghetti squashes are causing a traffic jam. Not bad, only slightly annoying but I chewed well so not a huge problem. In and out in 7 or so.
Pouch b/f bed pretty good consistency despite the veggies. Irrigated a couple of times and out in 5-6 mins
tomorrow I'm headed to Cleveland Clinic for my 6 month scope so no breakfast :( and I'll be forced to empty in public restrooms *boo*
day 7
Breakfast: 7am coffee, water
Pouching around 8am and pretty watery with bits of carrot (i never remember to chew my soup :op). I irrigate until the return is pretty clear. I'll empty one more time up at CC before my scope just to be sure its as empty as it can be. Leaving in 30 mins. At least with no rectum there is no enema :/ Peristomal skin looking better today but I still put some powder on.
Ok so I get to CC and in the pre-procedure area, tell the nurse I need to empty my pouch one last time b/f the scope. Go to the bathroom start to unpack my gear when I realize that I have no Lube to put my cath in. This is the bag I took on an airplane back in Dec so of course I had to remove all the little bottles of goo. *sigh*
Well I figured, stoma is probably wet enough, I hear that people intubate w/out lubricant, I'll give it a try. Well I can advance it up to the first hole but no farther. And my stomach is so tense 'cause I'm stressed about the procedure and I'm stressed about not having any lube and its just not going in. Pull it out, start again. Nothing. Try again, Nope. Not getting anywhere and so now I'm even more frustrated and its really really hard to relax your stomach muscles consciously when you're nervous/upset/frustrated.
So I just started praying 'God you know I'd really like to get this last little bit out b/f I go in there, please help me to relax!' And hooray I got it in! Not much came out but I figure, well better than nothing.
Oh side note here: I intubate standing up. I can't seem to do it while I'm sitting. Sometimes I'll squat or kneel in front of the toilet, sometimes I'll just use the sink (depending upon where I am).
So I went and got my scope and it really went pretty well. It didn't hurt as much as last time though it did get pretty intense for a while. I'm not much of a verbal expressor of pain so it was interesting from a purely medical standpoint how my body reacted to the stress since I was awake. BP went from 97/71 pre-procedure to 131/92 immediately post procedure and I broke out in a cold sweat. I say cold b/c I was FREEZING in the procedure room. But the nurse got a towel for my forehead. But oddly, a couple of hours later when I was being checked in for my office visit the nurse took my BP and it was 84/56. "Is it normally low?" yes, but not that low. Well, probably because your body is still recovering from the sedation of the scope. oh. well I wasn't sedated. Really? Hmmm.
So after scope went and grabbed a bowl of curried lentil soup for lunch about 11:45. Emptied my pouch about 1pm feeling a little bloated no surprise b/c of the air in there. Had to empty in a public restroom on the GI floor, but was able to use the handicap stall so had plenty of room for my stuff. Cath in OK (thankfully I managed to procure some lube from a helpful nurse) and output ok except for the gassiness.
Believe me, when I know I'm going to be emptying in a public area I chew the life out of my food, even soft veggies in soups. Cause you really don't wanna have to mess with a clogged cath when you're squashed in some foreign stall trying to be as quick as possible. Really just going for relief instead of "empty" at that point.
So awesome news I don't have to see the GI again for a year -- WOOOHOOOO and the pouch and valve looked great. He said I was a k-pouch poster child haha.
Oh, on the kind of bummer side he said majority of complications with the k-pouch he sees are due to WEIGHT GAIN. So, don't gain more that 5 lbs he says.
5 lbs? *sigh*
Now you can see while I live off cottage cheese and squash....
Ah, being a k-poucher, well it does have its challenges, but I'll take it any day over an ileo.
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