For the Curious

Here are a few diagrams of what Andrew's surgeries have been about.
I got these from http://www.j-pouch.org/

The first surgery was done laproscopically which is minimally invasive. Most of his colon was removed last time but some of the rectum was left. He had an ileostomy which comes out of his abdomen and empties into a bag.


So this time the rest of the rectum was removed and a J-pouch was made. A new ileostomy was made to allow the pouch to heal.





The next and final surgery will just be to reconnect the two parts together. The J-pouch will be functional at that point and he will no longer have an external bag.