Fellow bloggers and readers, though I avoid posting very personal posts here this one is an exception. My mother has been suffering from Stomach ulcer (Ulerative Collitis) since almost 1.5 years. Recently she was advised to undergo surgery (ileopouch anastomosis). If you know any body who has undergone such a surgery kindly let me know the pros and cons of this surgery. One who has undergone this operation would be in the best position to explain the post operation problems if any. Would be grateful for your help. Please pass this information on.

Update [Dec.28, 2004]: Umpteen visits to this post and a comment by Angsuman prompted me to post this update. I hope it benefits others. I did not update my blog on this but my Mom underwent a single surgery in Feb 2004 and is very well now. The surgery involved removal of the entire large intestine and creation of an artificial pouch to hold stool. Before this she was on steroids (omnacortil, wysolone) for more than 2 years, the side-effects were enormous, she had swelled up, accompanied with loss in bone-strength and the bleeding would start as soon as you curtail on the medicines.

I was fortunate enough to find Dr.Ashok Ladha (based at Indore), who, though charges heftily, is one of the few who could perform this surgery in a single stage while others were talking about a 3-stage surgery spread over 6 months, a thing I could never have gone ahead with considering my mother’s age and constitution. The post surgery days have been painful too and though she is quite well off now the increased frequency of stools (almost 15-16 times a day) needs guts to deal with on a day-to-day basis.