T-minus 29 hours

I am much more calm going into this surgery then the last.  Unlike last time, here I am 1 day before, with no bags packed, no laundry done and no compulsion to clean the entire house.  

Here are the stats for tomorrow.  The surgery is scheduled for the afternoon.  It should only take 1 1/2 hours.  The surgeon, Dr Donald Kim,  will reconnect my small intestines.  He'll attempt to use the current incision where Stoma Stan is now, and only make it an inch or two bigger.  Then he'll have to fish out the other end of my small intestine (the "downstream end", from the j-pouch) and he'll sew that to Stoma Stan.  Then he'll shove it back into my body.  There are only two places he may experience a little hiccup.  It may take him longer than expected to find the loose end of my small intestines.  (Here's to hoping he's a good fisherman.)  And if a lot of scar tissue has formed, he may have to reopen my main incision.  Scott will post an update when I'm out of surgery.  Then I plan to be blogging from my hospital room.  The expected hospital stay should only be 3 days, but it completely depends on how quick my GI tract wakes up. 

Come tomorrow my insides will no longer be outside.  I'll no longer be excreting my excrement through my abdomen.  I will sit on a toilet to poop. Often.  Like really, really, often.  I'll be like a toddler being potty trained.  I'll have to relearn my body's signs that I gotta go.  Part of my small intestines will have to learn  the job of colon and rectum.  Let's hope my small intestines have a quick learning curve.