This is PART THREE of the Battle Analysis. New parts will be posted as written. So I started recovering. The recovery was extremely challenging. I felt really crappy after the surgery. It didn't help that I was very sick BEFORE the surgery. I had lost a lot of weight, and was under a lot of emotional stress from being very sick for months and months. It was hard for me to adjust to the ileostomy, too. Ileostomies are actually no big deal (although they can be annoying) but they are difficult to care for if you are already feeling terrible. It's just another hassle to worry about. I had some pretty substantial abdominal pain for a few weeks after the surgery. It felt like I did about two thousand situps. No, I take that back... it felt like someone had cut me open and rooted around inside me for awhile. A funny thing started happening. I started feeling better. It happened so slowly that I didn't even notice it at first. It was almost three weeks before I was able to walk around without making a big production out of it. And the first time I went to the grocery store, it was pretty painful. It would actually wipe me out for the rest of the day. But soon the pain started to fade away, my appetite started coming back, and I realized that I was going out and not having to worry about a bathroom, for the first time in my life. Sometime in early October, I started to realize that I really felt wonderful. The milestones kept coming. My first trip to the zoo. A trip to a ballgame. My first huge Mexican food meal. Throwing a party. An Arby's sandwich-eating duel against my brother, which I won! As I write this (11/3/99) I feel absolutely cured, for the first time in my life. There is no trace of abdominal pain. I can eat anything I'd like. My abdominal muscles are still a little bit weak, but I have my strength and energy back. Soon, the takedown will be scheduled, hopefully in a few weeks. I'll tell you all about that.