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Just a quick question , should I ask my surgeon if pro biotics would be a good idea after my takedown surgery? I don't have a date for it just yet but will soon. Just curious about what others think. I wanna try to stave off pouch it is best I can, since I see lots of people get pouchitis at least a couple times. 

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Probiotics likely won’t do your health any harm, and it’s possible that they could help, but the best of them will put a big dent in your bank account. My (high dose) probiotics retail for over $600 per month; once my annual out-of-pocket maximum is met my insurance company pays for them, but I wouldn’t do it if my body hadn’t made it clear that pouchitis is much more than hypothetical for me. Some people do well with lower doses, and many people do just fine with none.

I'll toss in my two cents for what it's worth. I had the original takedown surgery and developed pouchitis shortly after that. I later had a diverting ileostomy and a second takedown and decided to do things differently. With the initial one I didn't use a probiotic and my first 'meals' were jello, fruit juice and broth.   The second time around I opted to forego the sugary fruit and jello. I ate broth and thin yogurt and took a probiotic (couldn't afford VSL/Visbiome). I haven't experienced pouchitis since that take down in February 2018. I continue to take a probiotic and eat very little sugar. It seems to me that with the gut completed cleared out of everything after surgery, it was foolish to start off with a bunch of bacteria forming sugar. I wanted to give it a better chance of developing a crop of 'good bacteria'.

Good luck with your takedown. (It takes lots of time to settle)

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