how long does it take to get BMs down to what is ‘normal for you’ in the end? I have heard the usual ‘it takes a year to fully settle’ but is this actually true? Or is this just said by people who are having a bad time to give people hope? I have spoken to a few people with j pouches who have said after that after 6-8 weeks they got their BMs down to 4 times daily.
What can I expect realistically?
Thanks
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I am at 19 months, and I would say that the first 9 months were pretty rough. It got much better after that, and most days I’m down to 3-4 bathroom breaks a day.
If I eat my main meal in the middle of the day, and don’t have solid food after 4pm, I can even sleep through the night, although most nights I have to get up once.
How long have you been a “pouchie”?
Thanks. So it took 9 months or so to get down to that number? I’ve only had a pouch for 3 months! However, I was incorrectly put on antibiotics for pouchitis (which we now know I probably didn’t have, another story) after only 2 weeks. On the antibiotics I felt great, only went 3-4 times a day and never through the night after only 2 weeks. Problem is when I finished the course I went back to 6-7 times daily and maybe once in night and that’s still where I am at now. Wondering whether I will be able to get it down anymore than this. I figured after several courses of antibiotics and feeling so great on them and then worsening when they stopped, in actual fact I was probably rebounding to ‘normal’ once off the antibiotics if that makes sense. Cipro almost had a constipating effect on me.
i know people may say 6-7 times can be ‘normal’ but I have now experienced ‘great’ but only when antibiotics, am we know i definitely do not have pouchitis or any other infection, my doctors haven’t really been able to explain this effect yet, they call me an enigma!
I’m on a couple of meds (for different issues) that can have a constipating effect, so in my case, this may be helping.
Another possible factor is that, around the time that I improved, I started drinking 160 ounces of water per day, which I did for a couple of months in a futile attempt to lose weight. Since my J-pouch was constantly filling with water, it may have had the unintended consequence of helping my J-pouch to hold more volume. When I went back to drinking water at a more humanly possible quantity, I noticed a marked reduction in the number of BMs, compared to pre-waterfest. I think that I inadvertently trained my J-pouch to hold more. I also went from taking large quantities of lomotil and loperamide to taking none, except when traveling.
Although I have a k pouch (abdominal stoma to empty my pouch) I can say only one thing...Everybody is different and if you start comparing yourself to others you will either be very happy, very worried or unhappy.
It took my body about 6 months to figure out that it had been rerouted and start absorbing liquids from the small intestine instead of from the 'missing' colon.
It took about another 2 yrs for me to feel like I started absorbing nutrients from the small bowel too...(although it is really its function and not the colon's...Things just seemed to run through so fast and then out that I was constantly cold, tired, sleepless and rundown)...but then again it could have just been being sick prior to the pouch surgery and the 5 surgeries/anesthetics in the same yr.
Take it slowly, follow the rules and be patient...this is a marathon, not a sprint.
Sharon
I know it can be frustrating but I echo Sharon- everyone is different.
I’m almost 4 months post takedown and I go 2-3x when I’m sleeping. I go less in the am bc I haven’t eaten much yet. By noon, it kicks in. I think total, I go about 10+ times per day. I think that’s good actually! I have control- way more than control than when I had my worse flare with UC. I go every time I pee.
