@Cindy R posted:Thanks for your replies. Do you have control issues when you eat the wrong foods? I am worried about bathroom trips and accidents. I am worried about control with a j pouch.
After I healed from the surgery, very rarely, and only if I ate something I knew would disagree with me. I can eat a varied diet, but I have to avoid beans, beer, lentils, and raw salad items. (I also have to avoid hot chilli, but that is because it burns on the way out!)
When I did get incontinence, it was only a small amount and usually at night. So I could have avoided night-time accidents by wearing a light pad.
In my experience, the incontinence from the j-pouch was nowhere near as messy as a bag leaking or blowing off. Also it was much easier to recover from: putting on clean underwear and PJ pants and back to bed vs getting up and doing a bag change.
You will learn pretty quickly which foods don’t agree with you. I don’t think I’ve had any accidents since the first year of my j-pouch.
But everyone is different. And anyone can experience complications after surgery, including continence problems.