u/Deep_Amoeba2197

Hello everyone, back again with questions before my reversal on May 20th.

I have been on Zepbound for almost 2 months. They told me to stop a week before, but I’m actually considering stopping earlier so I can be a little stronger for surgery.

I’m concerned about when to resume. The delayed gastric emptying causes minor constipation that I manage with MiraLAX. They said I could resume a week after, but I’m worried about getting constipated and compromising the reconnection.

I take zep both for weight loss (gained 100lbs on prednisone) and as an off label trial to see if it helps my RA (not approved for this yet, promising studies, rhuem is on board.)

If you’ve been on a GLP1 when you had a reconnection, when did you resume and how did it go?

I got my stoma on 11/30/25, I was one month out from another surgery and perforated my sigmoid colon. Almost died and was septic in the ER, emergency surgery was a full lap, and I woke up to 13 inches of staples and an ostomy bag. I stayed in the hospital about 15 days.

In the ensuing months, things have gotten better, but I mentally haven’t been doing great. It’s improved my health, but I have other systemic chronic illness, so I mostly stay inside. I lost my very successful career and all of my “friends” and have a strained relationship with my family. I am in therapy.

I just found out today that my reconnection is scheduled for 5/20/26, mostly because my very expensive cobra coverage ends this month. I am terrified I am going to end up in a diaper the rest of my life. They are doing a colonoscopy at the same time as the surgery so I only have to be anesthetized once (I take medication that needs to be stopped for anesthesia so scheduling both is hard.) They are keeping me in the hospital for 5-7 days minimum.

I am just….i have heard so many awful things about reconnection. I am also miserable with a stoma and hate my body more than I already did. I also found out one of my cats has cancer today, so it’s just all a lot.

If you had a reconnection, can you tell me about it? Even if you didn’t, can you talk me down? I used to have an extremely successful career, I used to powerlift and ride motorcycles and do things. For years, even before the stoma, I have just been going from bed to couch because there is no other help for me. If I end up in diapers, I won’t be able to take it. I should be happy. I should be happy they saved my life. But I’m just mad and sad that I’ve been robbed of a normal existence.

If you have a horror story, please refrain from sharing it. I can’t handle it. I can’t handle any of this. I am 36 and have been sick for 20 years. I just wanted a chance at life and it was all ripped out of my hands.