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Hope everyone is doing well. So, I'm about 8 months out from take down. Doing well for the most part. I was wondering if it's somewhat normal for me to be having an average of 8 bowl movements daily. Seems my body has a weird schedule. At night when I go to bed, I notice that I get some gas, most of the time it's not bad, but when I do get it, I end up going to the bathroom about 5 times nightly. When I take my afternoon nap, this doesn't happen. I've tried a lot of different things like intermittent fasting and usually stop eating by 8pm. I'm still figuring out the whole diet thing too. After months out of take down, do some of you still have 8-10 bowl movements daily? It's more so small bowl movements and not fully emptying out. I usually empty out pretty well in the late afternoons. I'm trying to figure out what is normal for jpouchers as far as the number of bowl movements daily. The other question is about still having accidents at night a few times a week. Nothing really big or major, but I still wear the diaper at night. It can be frustrating figuring out this jpouch life, but it sure as heck is so much better than having the illeostomy bag thing for sure. Thankyou. 

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This sounds frustrating, @JoeJoe. There are certainly some folks with healthy pouches having 8 bowel movements daily. Having nighttime accidents, though, is a sign that something isn’t right. If you weren’t having the accidents you might be able to ignore the gas and get up fewer times during the night, but that seems too risky under the circumstances.

My best guess is that this is pouchitis. If that’s what it is then 10-14 days of Cipro or Flagyl would probably take care of it. If you prefer to try other things first then you could take Imodium or Lomotil at bedtime and perhaps add some fiber, at least at dinner time, to thicken things up. You might have to experiment with the fiber to find a supplement that does the trick without causing more gas. I get good results with psyllium.

Since the gas is causing you so much trouble it would be useful to pin down the source. It’s likely going to be swallowed air, gas-producing food, or a combination of the two.

Good luck!

I also wear ALWAYS #4 LONG for incontinence just in case.  They  are wide and have a full length tape to hold in place to keep secure with your underwear.  (50 for maybe $11 around me?)  Make sure they are LONG for pouch accidents and to keep underwear clean... I have accidents when I exercise or walk alot or do anything physical like yard work.  But it is manageable!!  We can do this!!!

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