Hello Everyone,
Hope everyone is doing OK. Sorry I haven’t been on here for a while.
I had ileostomy reversal in March this year (formed temporarily after LAR surgery for bowel cancer). Things were going really well, then over April/May/June suffered 4 blockages which were cleared with Gastrografin, however scan showed stricture at join where scare tissue had formed due to leakage at join. Colonoscopy with dialatation was performed to try and stretch stricture, unfortunately this led to bowel perforation and emergency surgery to cut out the stricture and re-join. The surgery was a partial right hemi-colectomy. It’s taken me over 3 months to get over this operation – it really knocked the stuffing out of me and has been very scary.
Since then, I have had problems which seems to be related to fat intake. Usually (but not always) when I have fat or pasta I suffer from burning diarrhoea and urgency, and can’t leave the house. I have cut out as much fat as possible from my diet but am losing weight (over 11kgs) and my hair has started to fall out & (although I take a daily multivitamin) this might be due to not getting the fat soluable vitamins I need, so this very low fat diet is not a long-term solution.
I think I may have Bile Acid Malabsorption (BAM), which seems to affect some people particularly after a right hemi-colectomy. Dr has prescribed Cholestagel however I’m not keen to start taking it without a firm diagnosis (via a SeHCAT test) as I’d likely be taking them for life and would ideally want to try controlling BAM with diet, if that’s possible (I don't know if it is?).
Has anyone else had a similar problem? Have you been diagnosed with BAM, how are you controlling it and is it successful? Any information gratefully received.
On a positive note my scan in July, 12 months after finishing chemo, was clear.
Net77
