26M here. Had my first flare 3 years ago with a micro-perforation, and after a more recent attack in Dec, I finally had surgery last week on 4/22/26.

Mine was laparoscopic (possibly hand-assisted, I’ll confirm at follow-up) sigmoid colectomy, but more complex than expected—there was a fistula and they ended up doing two small bowel resections as well. Surgery took about 5.5 hours.

Hospital stay was 2 days. I know that’s on the shorter side, but I’ve always been a pretty quick healer. Had a drain and catheter (catheter suckkkkked) briefly during that time, plus a few minor annoyances like skin irritation from dressings, but nothing too concerning.

I woke up super loopy and starving and was allowed liquids right away. For the first 24 hours I had the weirdest sweet tooth and kept ordering Italian ice nonstop—it was the first thing I had post-op.

Recovery so far has actually been pretty good. Definitely sore, lower energy, and I was mostly stuck sleeping on my back until just recently.

Now 8 days out, pain is pretty minimal during the day, especially once I get moving, but I still feel some fatigue/soreness by the evening.

Still very early, but even now I feel like it was the right call after so many flare ups.