I'm three months ahead of you in recovery. Your description, Mynewbutt, sounds much like my early days. I can tell you that now I don't think about it to nearly the same degree. I still go about 8 times per day including getting up once, sometimes twice during the night. The gas has diminished a great deal. I don't need to sit in the tub much anymore. I do get butt burn when I eat spicy food but will put up with it occasionally to enjoy my curry. My energy is much better although I have developed anemia for some reason. I'm not back up to exercising much but I don't really think I can blame the jpouch for that one (I'll blame the iron instead!) Trust that you haven't hit your new normal yet. This is likely just your new-early-recovery- normal. One thing I will add is that taking psyllium 3 or 4 times a day has made things so much more manageable and comfortable for me. (In case you're not familiar with psyllium, it's metamucil without the sugar or flavouring and is much coarser)