Sore anus

This was normal for me in the beginning.

@Kmiller posted:

This was normal for me in the beginning.

You sure? It would help so much if i knew other people went trough the same....

My first month was very similar also...after a few weeks it starts to calm down a bit...I would go to the bathroom and 5 to 10 minutes later go back and just sit, nothing would come out bet it felt like it was there. It was very sore and frustrating...

I think the same thing happened to me except for the pee part I believe. I think everything will be okay. The body has to get use to the changes. It took me about a year to get the hang of things.

Have faith, everything will be okay, and congratulations on Takedown

Hi, Bent Arne.

I had the same experience you are having now. Your new j pouch is now learning how to work for you. It has never performed the way you and your surgeon expect it to for the rest of your life, so it's a learning curve for you and your j pouch. Remember it used to be a simple small intestine, but now it has to be your colon. My experience in the first few weeks after reversal (or takedown, same thing) was urgency, frequency, a feeling of incomplete emptying, fullness in the anus, the need to use the bathroom but very little comes out. So you get up, wash, and within two minutes you think you need the toilet again. When that happens, just go and sit on the toilet. Don't be frustrated by it. It's a very new and specific thing to learn, and you will. Some bit of stool might come out, or not. Sometimes, for me, it felt like a golf ball rolling around trying to get out. That's the pressure, or gas, or spasms in your pouch. I did whatever my j pouch wanted (sometimes I had no choice). If I felt spasms, I headed for the toilet, just to be safe and not have accidents, which will happen so do not feel bad about that. You and your pouch are learning.

I tried to hold it as long as possible because that is supposed to stretch the size of your pouch. I tried that for a very brief time, then decided I would not follow that policy. To me, it felt like I was holding all the gas, bacteria, stool, liquid, etc., that my j pouch was telling me (screaming at me) it wanted to be rid of. So I did, whenever I had the urge. I didn't want my pouch to hold bacteria for longer than necessary because bacteria is related to inflammation /pouchitis. I had two bouts of pouchitis around this time and took cipro from my doctor and got over the inflammation very, very quickly. After that, I didn't hold on, I just used the toilet whenever I felt the urge. Whatever your condition, drink lots of water and keep your fluids up every single day. I drink water from a 32 ounce Mason jar and straw through the lid. Two bottles per day.

When you get fire bum from the frequent toilet trips, use barrier creams. I used Calmoseptine in the beginning, then preferred Zincofax, a baby cream. You could also try a plastic bidet bottle, or get a bidet that attaches to your toilet. I found that the bidet attachment saved my sanity and my bum. When I'm away from home, I miss my bidet!  I have no pouch issues now, four years later, except when I eat something raw such as salad, or vegetables not fully cooked, or insoluble foods. My pouch can be quiet and calm for five hours with no issues. Give yourself and your j pouch time, maybe a year, to settle in and work for you. Unless you are feverish, dehydrated, malnourished, bleeding profusely, or have severe diarrhea, your frequency and spasms are normal at this early stage. Try not to be afraid or worry. If you have more issues or questions, post them! Someone will help you.

@Bent-Arne posted:

10days post up reversal, my anus is really sore like on the inside. And whenever some poop comes there i get really bad urges to use the toilet. And after I've used the toilet the anus still spasms... Like it tries to push out moore poop, but it's empty. And now i have like a pressure in my anus all the time.. I don't see any blood.

So I'm wondering if this is a normal feeling in the beginning? Or should i be worried something is off?

And yeah, i have a big time difficulties to pee when i have this pressure down there.. This worries med big time..

What medications are you currently taking, or have taken in the past few days? Have you taken any anti spasm drugs? Because when I got my pouch in 2012, the first two weeks after I was home from the hospital I was having this weird issue where my sphincter would spasm. It would get stuck in a squeezing position and I couldn't release it. I also couldn't pee.

Turns out both of these issues were caused by the medication I had taken. I can't remember the name of it now. It was something that the home care nurse suggested to my surgeon to prescribe, after I was home. She thought it would help because I was still having some pain from the surgery and she thought the pouch was cramping up.

I had no idea the medication was causing these issues and I thought I just had a problem related to the surgery. Then I went to a new gastroenterologist, two weeks later, that I hadn't seen before and told him about the peeing problem. He told me to stop taking the medication.

After I did that I could pee normally and the sphincter thing went away too.

Edit: This is another extremely important thing I forgot to mention. Are you taking Metamucil? Did anyone tell you to take it? Because if not, you need to talk to you doctor about it as soon as possible. Metamucil is an extremely important thing for you to have. My surgeon and his team never told me about it, but I got on it because another doctor at a second hospital I went to after my surgery, got me on it. I hate to think of what could've happened if I'd never known about it.

Metamucil just make my pouch function better in every possible way. It makes it so that instead of having to be on the toilet for an hour and have a bunch of little poops, I have one big solid one and get off the toilet in less than thirty seconds. It also makes my butt hurt a lot less and makes me not have to strain to get empty. And it makes me go, overall, less times throughout the day. It makes me feel, almost like I have a healthy colon. When I get lazy about taking the Metamucil, I definitely suffer for it. My pouch and my butt get all irritated and painful.

The dosing is kind of tricky, though. If you take to much, it'll actually make you poop to much and if you take to little, it won't do anything. You have to find just the right amount, a Goldilocks kind of thing. I take one heaping table spoon of it in a 12oz glass of water, as needed, but no more than that in 24 hours.

@Winterberry posted:

Hi, Bent Arne.

I had the same experience you are having now. Your new j pouch is now learning how to work for you. It has never performed the way you and your surgeon expect it to for the rest of your life, so it's a learning curve for you and your j pouch. Remember it used to be a simple small intestine, but now it has to be your colon. My experience in the first few weeks after reversal (or takedown, same thing) was urgency, frequency, a feeling of incomplete emptying, fullness in the anus, the need to use the bathroom but very little comes out. So you get up, wash, and within two minutes you think you need the toilet again. When that happens, just go and sit on the toilet. Don't be frustrated by it. It's a very new and specific thing to learn, and you will. Some bit of stool might come out, or not. Sometimes, for me, it felt like a golf ball rolling around trying to get out. That's the pressure, or gas, or spasms in your pouch. I did whatever my j pouch wanted (sometimes I had no choice). If I felt spasms, I headed for the toilet, just to be safe and not have accidents, which will happen so do not feel bad about that. You and your pouch are learning.

I tried to hold it as long as possible because that is supposed to stretch the size of your pouch. I tried that for a very brief time, then decided I would not follow that policy. To me, it felt like I was holding all the gas, bacteria, stool, liquid, etc., that my j pouch was telling me (screaming at me) it wanted to be rid of. So I did, whenever I had the urge. I didn't want my pouch to hold bacteria for longer than necessary because bacteria is related to inflammation /pouchitis. I had two bouts of pouchitis around this time and took cipro from my doctor and got over the inflammation very, very quickly. After that, I didn't hold on, I just used the toilet whenever I felt the urge. Whatever your condition, drink lots of water and keep your fluids up every single day. I drink water from a 32 ounce Mason jar and straw through the lid. Two bottles per day.

When you get fire bum from the frequent toilet trips, use barrier creams. I used Calmoseptine in the beginning, then preferred Zincofax, a baby cream. You could also try a plastic bidet bottle, or get a bidet that attaches to your toilet. I found that the bidet attachment saved my sanity and my bum. When I'm away from home, I miss my bidet!  I have no pouch issues now, four years later, except when I eat something raw such as salad, or vegetables not fully cooked, or insoluble foods. My pouch can be quiet and calm for five hours with no issues. Give yourself and your j pouch time, maybe a year, to settle in and work for you. Unless you are feverish, dehydrated, malnourished, bleeding profusely, or have severe diarrhea, your frequency and spasms are normal at this early stage. Try not to be afraid or worry. If you have more issues or questions, post them! Someone will help you.

Thank you so much

@melissa111 posted:

What medications are you currently taking, or have taken in the past few days? Have you taken any anti spasm drugs? Because when I got my pouch in 2012, the first two weeks after I was home from the hospital I was having this weird issue where my sphincter would spasm. It would get stuck in a squeezing position and I couldn't release it. I also couldn't pee.

Turns out both of these issues were caused by the medication I had taken. I can't remember the name of it now. It was something that the home care nurse suggested to my surgeon to prescribe, after I was home. She thought it would help because I was still having some pain from the surgery and she thought the pouch was cramping up.

I had no idea the medication was causing these issues and I thought I just had a problem related to the surgery. Then I went to a new gastroenterologist, two weeks later, that I hadn't seen before and told him about the peeing problem. He told me to stop taking the medication.

After I did that I could pee normally and the sphincter thing went away too.

Edit: This is another extremely important thing I forgot to mention. Are you taking Metamucil? Did anyone tell you to take it? Because if not, you need to talk to you doctor about it as soon as possible. Metamucil is an extremely important thing for you to have. My surgeon and his team never told me about it, but I got on it because another doctor at a second hospital I went to after my surgery, got me on it. I hate to think of what could've happened if I'd never known about it.

Metamucil just make my pouch function better in every possible way. It makes it so that instead of having to be on the toilet for an hour and have a bunch of little poops, I have one big solid one and get off the toilet in less than thirty seconds. It also makes my butt hurt a lot less and makes me not have to strain to get empty. And it makes me go, overall, less times throughout the day. It makes me feel, almost like I have a healthy colon. When I get lazy about taking the Metamucil, I definitely suffer for it. My pouch and my butt get all irritated and painful.

The dosing is kind of tricky, though. If you take to much, it'll actually make you poop to much and if you take to little, it won't do anything. You have to find just the right amount, a Goldilocks kind of thing. I take one heaping table spoon of it in a 12oz glass of water, as needed, but no more than that in 24 hours.

I'm just taking something called Tramadol 50mg and Paracetamol.  When i read about the side effect it states that muscle spasm and trouble urinating is two of them. And they fit my timeperiod. I started using them two days after i got home from the hospital. Day three home i started getting spasms. Like you say, it's like the anus has locked itself in a closed position. I kinda doubt it would be this medication, but I will give it a try. But it's hard when I don't use pain killers...

@Bent-Arne posted:

I'm just taking something called Tramadol 50mg and Paracetamol.  When i read about the side effect it states that muscle spasm and trouble urinating is two of them. And they fit my timeperiod. I started using them two days after i got home from the hospital. Day three home i started getting spasms. Like you say, it's like the anus has locked itself in a closed position. I kinda doubt it would be this medication, but I will give it a try. But it's hard when I don't use pain killers...

Oh, ok. That's not what I took. Are you in the U.K? Because I don't think they prescribe Paracetamol in the U.S, where I live, or if they do, it's called something else. The pain will get better. I know it seems hard to believe that now, but it will. Just hang in there. For me, the worst thing was that nervy weird pain down in the spot where the surgery was done, from the nerves regenerating in that area. It was pretty horrible. But it went away after a few months. Now it's been eight years and I feel and function just like I did back when I had a normal colon. You'll get there.

Also, as far as my comment about the Metamucil, since you appear to be in the U.K, I don't know if they have that there. But it's something you definitely need. It's psyllium husk fiber, made from corn husk. I'm sure they probably sell that in the U.K under some brand name. If not, you're going to have to order it online. 

@melissa111 posted:

Oh, ok. That's not what I took. Are you in the U.K? Because I don't think they prescribe Paracetamol in the U.S, where I live, or if they do, it's called something else. The pain will get better. I know it seems hard to believe that now, but it will. Just hang in there. For me, the worst thing was that nervy weird pain down in the spot where the surgery was done, from the nerves regenerating in that area. It was pretty horrible. But it went away after a few months. Now it's been eight years and I feel and function just like I did back when I had a normal colon. You'll get there.

Also, as far as my comment about the Metamucil, since you appear to be in the U.K, I don't know if they have that there. But it's something you definitely need. It's psyllium husk fiber, made from corn husk. I'm sure they probably sell that in the U.K under some brand name. If not, you're going to have to order it online.

I'm actually in Norway I did find the metamucil here, but the brand name is visiblin  gonna call my doctor tomorrow and ask   ok, so it wasn't tramadol then. Then i will continue to take it. I didn't take anything today and i had a living hell with spasms.

Paracetamol is just acetaminophen/Tylenol. Psyllium husk is well worth trying, though it isn’t made from corn husk.

I don't know if it was the tramadol. Maybe that can cause spasms too. I don't know. Talk to your doctor about it.

Do you need your doctor to give you a prescription for things like the Visiblin in Norway? I've heard that in some countries, you need a prescription for pretty much anything. In the U.S, you'd be able to buy the fiber supplements without a prescription at any grocery store.

I think you can have it with prescription or without, the only difference it's way cheaper with prescription

Much you need prescription for yes

Yes, the pressure drove me nuts. I still have it sometimes (almost 8 months] with the pouch but its getting better. I had spasms for awhile, maybe a couple months, but thats a non issue for me now. I found too it was very hard for me to pee, drove me crazy. That is not an issue for me now

@Kmiller posted:

Yes, the pressure drove me nuts. I still have it sometimes (almost 8 months] with the pouch but its getting better. I had spasms for awhile, maybe a couple months, but thats a non issue for me now. I found too it was very hard for me to pee, drove me crazy. That is not an issue for me now

This is good to hear in the way I'm not alone

Im going to see my surgeon tomorrow because of this. I'm so super miserable now so i can't wait.

@Bent-Arne posted:

This is good to hear in the way I'm not alone

Im going to see my surgeon tomorrow because of this. I'm so super miserable now so i can't wait.

Definitely let us know how it goes!!

I will

@Winterberry posted:

Hi, Bent Arne.

I had the same experience you are having now. Your new j pouch is now learning how to work for you. It has never performed the way you and your surgeon expect it to for the rest of your life, so it's a learning curve for you and your j pouch. Remember it used to be a simple small intestine, but now it has to be your colon. My experience in the first few weeks after reversal (or takedown, same thing) was urgency, frequency, a feeling of incomplete emptying, fullness in the anus, the need to use the bathroom but very little comes out. So you get up, wash, and within two minutes you think you need the toilet again. When that happens, just go and sit on the toilet. Don't be frustrated by it. It's a very new and specific thing to learn, and you will. Some bit of stool might come out, or not. Sometimes, for me, it felt like a golf ball rolling around trying to get out. That's the pressure, or gas, or spasms in your pouch. I did whatever my j pouch wanted (sometimes I had no choice). If I felt spasms, I headed for the toilet, just to be safe and not have accidents, which will happen so do not feel bad about that. You and your pouch are learning.

I tried to hold it as long as possible because that is supposed to stretch the size of your pouch. I tried that for a very brief time, then decided I would not follow that policy. To me, it felt like I was holding all the gas, bacteria, stool, liquid, etc., that my j pouch was telling me (screaming at me) it wanted to be rid of. So I did, whenever I had the urge. I didn't want my pouch to hold bacteria for longer than necessary because bacteria is related to inflammation /pouchitis. I had two bouts of pouchitis around this time and took cipro from my doctor and got over the inflammation very, very quickly. After that, I didn't hold on, I just used the toilet whenever I felt the urge. Whatever your condition, drink lots of water and keep your fluids up every single day. I drink water from a 32 ounce Mason jar and straw through the lid. Two bottles per day.

When you get fire bum from the frequent toilet trips, use barrier creams. I used Calmoseptine in the beginning, then preferred Zincofax, a baby cream. You could also try a plastic bidet bottle, or get a bidet that attaches to your toilet. I found that the bidet attachment saved my sanity and my bum. When I'm away from home, I miss my bidet!  I have no pouch issues now, four years later, except when I eat something raw such as salad, or vegetables not fully cooked, or insoluble foods. My pouch can be quiet and calm for five hours with no issues. Give yourself and your j pouch time, maybe a year, to settle in and work for you. Unless you are feverish, dehydrated, malnourished, bleeding profusely, or have severe diarrhea, your frequency and spasms are normal at this early stage. Try not to be afraid or worry. If you have more issues or questions, post them! Someone will help you.

Thanks for the long reply

Now i am experiencing really high pressure in my anal area. I barely make it to the toilet, and after I'm done the pressure just keep on getting worse.. And there's so little poop coming out every time.. Just dosent feel right...??

It's completely normal I had my takedown on June, first few weeks I felt same pressure, its like something heavy seating in the anus, when you're empty just wipe and get off the toilet, go back when you feel you need to empty again, pressure won't go away seating position, in the beginning you will have more BM sometimes just gas, it will get better, last month i had 6-8 BM now I'm 5-6 a day, was taking metamucil first few months I stopped 6 weeks ago, good luck!