ileostomy take down -1 year

ninthave

Its been just over a year since I had the reconnection surgery, very low, about 1 cm. The first 8 months were pretty bad, lots of burning, and so many small bowel movements I'd lose track of how many. Found a diet program with psyllium husk to basically cause a controlled constipation to retrain the bowel minus the rectum. It has worked pretty well. Still have bouts, but definitely good enough to no longer feel like I'm going insane! Eventually stopped the psyllium husk, now eating low fat diet, and take a small dose of herbal laxitive each night. Trend is to get 1 to 2 good large bms a day, sometimes may take a couple of hours to get it all out. The thing I wanted most was to feel my bowel in a relaxed state and empty so I could go out and function, and that is what I've got more than 50% of the time. Still not working though, because of unpredictibility and the type of work I did. Hope this helps anyone just starting with it. Dont lose hope, it was really hard for me to stay positive when it seemed like it would never get better, it's just really slow. Peace.