Thanks so much for all of your support!
Well, Monday was surgery so that makes this either day 3 or day 2 depending on how you count.
I woke up this morning to find poop. Yes, a little accident but you know what? I was glad it had started! I never passed gas - I went straight to the poop.
My surgeon said that I was right on time based on his experience with patients who take Entereg, walk frequently (seven times yesterday), and don't have other complicating factors. He said another woman had the same surgery last week and she had the same schedule for recovery.
So - here's the wild thing - they are sending me home later today - wow - two days and two nights in the hospital - that's all. I must admit I'll sleep better at home.
My wound is an open wound. I have six staples - three on each side. Interestingly the pain is actually a bit more than when I had my LAR and the creation of the temporary ileo. My LAR was laproscopically assisted - I still have a midline incision but it extends up to about 2 inches below my belly button. The surgeon said that I would actually have more abdominal pain with the reversal surgery recovery because more muscle is cut. He said the protocol with the wound will simply be to shower each day with the gauze bandage on that covers it, then remove the bandage (that now is nice and wet from the shower), replace it with another layer of gauze bandage and tape all around. No packing and no special cleaning of the wound.
Like Eric did, I'll try to do a little mini-blog of my experience so that others can learn from it.
Speaking - of that - I did start eating Activia yogurt two weeks before the surgery - I'm not sure if it helps the small intestine or just the large one but I figured it couldn't hurt. I intend to eat one or two a day for weeks to come.