Digestion after surgery

hi William , I would say it’s still early days for you but what I found helped in the early days was Imodium liquid . You can then play with the dosage . I took half a teaspoon as one would cause constipation. It’s trial and error I’m afraid  Also psyllium husk powder from Holland and barrett is very helpful to bind your stools . My colorectal nurse said that you should reach your new normal by a year . I’m a year and a half from treatment and I’m still trying to tweak things . Take care X

Thanks so much. I'll try both your suggestions. And I note your year and a half - I clearly need to be more patient!

Best wishes to you

William

Hi WilliamPerhaps you could try introducing a bit of fibre and see if that helps by keeping a  food diary? I’ve attached a couple of links that might be of interest too?

https://community.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/forum/22519-ask-the-expert-video-q-a-regaining-bowel-control

https://bowelcancerorguk.s3.amazonaws.com/Publications/RegainingBowelControl_BowelCancerUK.pdf
Take care

Karen x

Hi William,

After my bowel resection surgery my eating and appetite were all over the place, let alone the fact that everything I tried to eat didnt stay in me.......

I was put onto a soft/ liquid diet that I struggled with so I did my own research.

x

Thanks, Karen. I do keep a food diary and have tried a bit of fibre but the results of the latter don't seem very consistent. I continue to experiment.  I'll open up the links tomorrow and read them carefully . I wasn't aware of either of them so thank you for pointing them out. 

bw

William

Thanks for this reply Lauren. If you have any tips to pass on from your  research, I'd be very grateful to have them. Sorry that it' s taken me so long to reply.

I hope your digestion is now more normal. 

bw

William

Hi I’m six months post Op.  my bowel movements have been random too.  The nurse suggested Fybogel to me, this has improved things for me but still a long way to go I think. 

My bowel and bladder nurse told me it takes months for bowels to heal and adapt to new situations. There are specialist stoma dieticians I think. Even though you do not have a stoma they might be able to help. 

Hi William

If you can do diet to helps it’s great.
I’ve just had a reversal so I am all over the place. I have found that going back to my stoma diet has helped and I’m introducing slowly. My go to thickeners are marshmallows, jelly babies, dry crackers. I have a lot of mustard mash with my meals and I over cook the vegetables or I spend a lot of time chewing. Which is what I’m used to with the stoma 

I like you have Loperamide in the cupboard and stool softeners and use them if I need too 

The challenge is a lot of those medications can have unpredictable consequences. Also how they work can change over time. I read the other day Laxido can cause constipation of all things. So its trial and error. Just as I improved I was started on strong anti biotics which likewise can cause havoc. Its a very tricky business.