Hi Doug
My surgeon was Remzi too, and I also had very high output with the loop. I drank a ton of electrolyte drinks. I remember rarely drinking regular water. In order not to load up on sugar, I got a non-sweetened electrolyte powder from amazon. It was not artificially sweetened either. I did not take any meds to slow things down.
I have my j-pouch since March, and the output is a lot less than the loop. There a long section of your small intestine between the loop ileostomy and the pouch. Once they give you the barium test at NYU to test the pouch for leaks, which happens about a month after your surgery, just look at the screen, you will see the long section of your intestine between the stoma and the pouch. 6-8 weeks after the final surgery, the output will not be more watery than it was with the end ileostomy that you had in the past, because Remzi did not throw away any of your small intestine. It is still there and will be functional once you are connected. It will absorb a lot of water.