Diving with a J-pouch

[Jan Crane]

I would love to hear from anyone with a J-pouch and if this has caused any problems, medical requirements for insurance etc.

Jan

[andyg03]

Jan,

I've recently had the J-Pouch formed and am hoping to dive at the Dive Fest subject to getting the nod from my dive doc.
I've dived 8 times with an end ileostomy down to 20m (I'm an OD) with absolutely no problems. I just ensured I emptied the bag just before the dive.
As for insurance: the wife and I went on holiday in January and when asking about insurance was told that it wasn't considered that the end ileo was an issue but that they had made a note of it, so I am hoping the same will be relevant for the J-Pouch.
I did find an article about diving with our condition on:

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/articles/article.asp?articleid=41

HTH
Andy

[Jan Crane]

Thanks for the link - v.interesting

Have been doing my ocean diver training in the pool with no issues, have found imodium helps taken about 4-6 hours before

Will hopefully get to try it gradually building up depth sometime in the next couple of months as our pool sessions finish at the end of April

I think equalisation of pressure is the only concern, that is something that is a bit tricky for pouchies given the lack of formation of our bi-products, that is where the imodium should help quite a bit I hope

Good luck with your diving, its been two and half years since my pouch was formed and took best part of two years to get proper control of it!