I haven't been around much lately and I just wanted to let everyone know I am doing well. I work on my feet 10 hour days. At first, I skipped breakfast and lunch because I was afraid of having to go too much. But now I eat and am doing well. I even ate pizza last night successfully! No explosive diarrhea to speak of. It just takes time. For everyone fighting for breath and sleep after takedown. Just do what you can each day and know it will get better.
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Hi Sharon. Glad you're doing well. Same here, 3 months post takedown. I just started Benefiber once a day in the morning due to some leakage during the day and Pepto with dinner and Immodium at bedtime. No complaints to speak of. I will be on the road with my job soon, worked in the office for the last month or so, so I will have to see how that goes. Biggest complaint is how noisy things can get at times in my stomach!
Glad to hear your doing good. It's important to have some positive feedback on this procedure too, so thanks for sharing! I'm doing well myself,but as I'm only 4 weeks out from reversal and not had my follow up yet i don't wanna tempt fate.
Is pizza supposed to be bad then? I only ask because that is kind of my staple, by that i mean i have it daily for lunch (the supermarket frozen kind) and last night for tea i had pappa johns take away (it was spicy too, lots of pickled Pepperino lol). I try and eat healthy for breakfast and tea, but i just find pizza easy for mid day and can be eaten hot or cold! Also I'm trying to gain weight after surgery so pizza probably helps here too lol
I read somewhere pizza was good for ileo patients, the bread being bulking and containing salts etc, and after reversal i just kinda kept to the same diet! I find there is way less diet advice post reversal.
So nice to hear from someone who is in their first year and doing well. I'm sure that there are a ton of people who post in their first couple weeks with lots of questions and then forget to come back after they are doing well.
I can add to the "it gets better" story too. I am 9 weeks post-take down and doing well. I couldn't imagine that the butt burn would get better and my skin would ever heal but- wow- it's healed up about 90%. I just have two little raw spots that hurt like paper cuts sometimes. But that horrible, prolonged burning is gone. Yay. I'm still going to the bathroom about 10 times per 24-hrs, but I can hold it for a while and most is in the evening.
To BOBISH: People avoid pizza because of the tomato sauce. I haven't tried it yet but apparently the acidity of the tomato sauce adds to the butt burn. If you don't find it's a problem then just ignore I said that! I eat grilled cheese instead of pizza because I haven't wanted to test it yet.
Glad you're doing well. I'm 18 months with my pouch and doing very well also. I can tell you, at least in my experience, that things continue to improve, even this far out. My rule with problematic foods like pizza, or things with red pepper or jalapeno, is to never follow that meal with another hot or spicy one. I never have issues when I do that. If I eat pizza twice in a row, I have issues. And even then it's not terrible. My worst problems usually resolve completely within 24 hrs. now.
As for butt-burn, I've never had an issue with it, but when I thought I might, I'd just step straight into the shower after pooping and wash it all. If you can keep from wiping, it should help tremendously. I have a cold water sprayer on the toilet and I use it every time now. I also have a hot tub, which I can't imagine going without at this point. 30 minutes in a 103° hot tub pretty much eliminates any issue right away.
Hi Sharon. Nice to hear from you. I has my takedown just prior to yours and I am on the same boat as you. I am on Metamucil two to three times a day just to bulk things up a bit. However, I am glad to hear you are doing well and I keep hearing that things tend to continue to get better up to a year to 18months. Keep well. I do know I like this a lot better than the bag.
