Hi had my kidney removal on Wednesday last week feeling good after initial pain from gas from op but have had bowel issues with diarrhoea . Has anyone else experienced this
Hi Justme and welcome. My partial was last Tuesday, so the day before you.
I am sorry to say, I always have the opposite problem. Ever since I can remember, and before (ie as a tiny tot) I have lived with worry about my bowels as I would regularly go for two weeks without going, and syrup of figs never made a jot of difference. I remember screaming in pain regularly for years - today, you would take your kid to the GP long before this, but in the 60s my mum only treated with "super figs" and it just carried on. I was 9 before I trained myself to go every two days and then eventually every day.
So now, if I miss a day, I panic that I will become impacted! I have only ever missed two days in my life since the age of 9 - each time, the actual day of my surgical procedure. I say to people, I wish I were the other way as although it would be a problem, at least it wouldn't be as dangerous because I know if ever I did get impacted, in theory it could become life-threatening if they cannot unblock me. I begged for an enema last time the day of surgery, and that was only because I was so afraid of not going by the day after surgery!! (They didn't give me one of course, and I did of course go the day after, once I had three meals inside me!!)
I am sorry you do have the opposite problem to me, as I can imagine it could be sleep-disturbing and possibly uncomfortable if you are up and down a lot to the bathroom when you would like to be resting.
Food wise, how about trying a diet with more binding in it? Rice is good for binding (my dog with her dicky tummy does very well on rice and plain chicken for a couple of days and that firms her up) and apparently sweet potato also is. Keep off the dairy if you can - milk is one of the non-binding foods in these circumstances. People tell me eggs give them constipation (I don't have a problem with two eggs every day!) so perhaps eggs would be worth a try, in moderation?
Next port of call, if you can get to one, is to ask a pharmacy. I get better advice and attention from my two pharmacies than from any GPs, for smaller issues. As long as you put them in the picture re: your surgery, they will give you unbiased recommendation on OTC products that might help. They should also suggest that you message your surgical team at the same time, just to give them the heads-up that a) this is happening and that b) you would like to investigate what treatment options are available and if they, the surgical team, would recommend/allow those if OTC products.
No harm in trying the dietary route first, as that is all-natural anyway. It may be that this is literally a very temporary blip. I know they do move all your organs around when performing surgery in the tummy/midriff/torso area, and I imagine it wouldn't take much to throw things out of sync bowel-wise. I too wonder how many others have the loose bowel issue, as everything I have read seems to veer towards the constipation side of things so I haven't even been aware that some people might end up with the opposite problem!
Hi Matie. Thank you for replying to my post. I did call day surgery unit they said I should visit my gp as not usual after this procedure When my gp replied suggested stool sample but since then have only been the once so hoping things are settling but I will definitely be trying some of your dietary tips . I have been careful to eat a very healthy food perhaps too much fibre. It sounds like you have had a rough time with your digestive system
So glad things are settling down for you now. Sounds like it was just a blip, in the same way as we get constipated, lazy bowels, bruising, swelling etc after surgery but in your case it just affected you in that way. Yes, be a bit careful with fibre. I need loads of fibre, but most people would get the runs with even half the amount of spinach and dates and prunes and figs and cabbage I eat daily!!
I have had this problem with my bowel since as far back as I can remember, literally. I sometimes wonder if the fact that I was permanently constipated, almost impacted, for two weeks at a time, for my first 8-9 years of life, did some damage to my bowels. Never had anything picked up on but then it wouldn't probably show up now, 60 years later, on scans meant to detect abnormalities in kidneys and womb!
The other thing is that I believe it is psychological, in a similar way to how a phobia is. Without going into details, I believe this is why I couldn't 'go' for two weeks at a time when little, and why even now I panic if I haven't been every single day of my life and at roughly the same time every day moreover. Travelling can get scary sometimes, as if I don't drink my 8 glasses of water every day, I can have trouble the following morning. When I used to sometimes travel abroad by overnight coach many years ago, even then with younger bowels I still had issues once I reached my destination. It's just something I've lived with all my life and have learned to manage, because as my body gets older I find I need more water than I used to drink, and more fruit and veg, than I did when I was younger in order to get the same effect. Sigh!
