How long for food to "flush" through and Imodium use.

Hi Ukhen,

(nice moniker...very cute)

Well you hit the nail on the head, you need a food diary detailing not just what you eat but what you eat with it (drinks, liquids, drugs...), the times of day that you eat and your general heath at the time (an Exel file should make it easy to do an much faster to compile the data).

That will give you a general idea of what  your pouch likes and doesn't like.

Next you can retro-engineer it and try an eli;;nation diet...Start off on the 1st day with something easy like fish or chicken...then each day add one food to your diet and see how they react both alone and together.

I have a general rule of thumb...most of us tend to be lactose intollerant (not all but most colonless people are...but many can still eat ice cream , hard cheeses and yoghurt), next high fiber foods can cause some of us problems...things like mushrooms, beans, corn, leeks, certain salads etc can be problamatic. (again, many or us learn to chew, chew, chew and manage to navigate the pitfalls of fiber).

Some of us cannot tollerate carbonated drinks or beer etc (sorry)...so they tend to avoid them. Others feel the same way about fruit.

Again, a lucky few can eat anything and everything not nailed down (argh!) while others seem to live off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the rest of their days.

Act as if your pouch is a 3rd twin (by the way, congratulations!)...Treat it like a baby leaning to eat, purrée your veggies, avoid chunks, test foods for a few days before integrating them into your diet...be nice.

by the way, just because a food disagrees with your pouch today doesn't mean that it won't work out later in life.

Good luck

Sharon

Thanks Sharon,

I did find the prospect of a food diary quite daunting so have neglected it as life has been so hectic.... twins are amazing but do take over! After surgery I was so careful with food and reasonably fortunate that my jpouch settled quickly that I slept all through the night and bowel movements were low compared to average. Now I eat everything I've probably increased output overall with 2 night visits.

The 'avoid' list does read like my favourite foods (prob the same for most people though!) but would like some control back. It's not that I'll stop eating those things long term, just would be great to know that for the weekend/holidays I can eat my safe foods to make life easier.....let work pay for my indulgences during the week ��. I'm also an accountant so excel tends to please me thought I'll try to avoid posting graphs showing output vs various foods!

Thanks again!

Henry

It is OK to take 2 Imodium at a time, and also to take it regularly. I've been taking it for 20+ years, but much less now than before. I take it twice a day.

That said, if you were doing better before, it makes sense to see if you can figure out what is going on. Maybe it is diet. Maybe it is stress, poor sleep, any of number of things. Also, bacterial overgrowth and pouchitis are very common. For myself, I've never noted diet to be a huge factor in my function. When things go sideways for me, it usually is one of those. The occasional bout of pouchitis became more frequent over time. Eventually I wound up on antibiotics all the time. Now I'm on Imuran and Remicade and doing better.

I hope you are lucky and diet sets you straight.

Jan

Thanks Jan, I had wondered whether there was something else....I am perpetually tired at the moment and work has been rubbish (starting a new one next week as it happens) so may well be related. Its been a gradual thing and I expect pouchitis would be noticeable and in all honestly it's not that bad, just not as good. I think I was lucky In that I settled pretty quickly post surgery so expected over a year or two that would improve considerably and it hasn't hit that expectation.

My diet is pretty poor so saw that as the easy reason....to be fair I could do with a more healthy lifestyle now things are settling so if that helps then great...I think even a normal colon would struggle with some of the binge days I have!

With Imodium, is it better to be a bit more structured/regular? As in if I take 2 in the morning, I sometimes feel the evenings can be worse as if everything then "catches up" or is that overthinking/not how it works? 

Thanks again

Henry

In my case pouchitis repeatedly crept up so slowly that I was impaired for months while I explained it away.