wind or worse?

sandysp said:

certain foods

Certain foods are worse than others. I used to love cole slaw and made it several times a week. Now the only cabbage I eat is saurkraut, which has a lot of probiotics and is very digestible. I am now a vegan who avoids wheat and corn. But everything is working a lot better now. There are so many vegetables, legumes and fruits (including nuts) to choose from even without my beloved cole slaw! Try adding foods slowly to this "applesauce" diet which I almost completely forgot about. My guess is that you need to drink "gallons" of water to go with the Metumucil and that should help with the bloating. Psyllium Husks absolutely control this for me unless I eat something pretty outrageous.

Good luck. You are still very early in this healing process. It takes a lot of patience to get over this treatment and some days are clearly better than others. I still have accidents from time to time also. But it's a lot better than it used to be and some of this is because I am trying to put less burden on this digestive system of mine and am pretty religious about the Psyllium Husks.

By the way, Coconut water is very good for dehydration and electrolyte balance.

All the best,

Sandy

 

Thanks, yes...

Actually, I am a vegetarian and have been for some time. I grow my own kefir for probiotics (something of an art/science that you have to get the hang of but once you do, if you like the taste of kefir, is well-worth the effort). I prepare my own electrolyte drink with potassium and magnesium, don't take supplemental calcium for reasons I won't go into here and actually, don't take much of anything "supplemental." As for accidents... I can't really call them accidents although they're certainly not on-purposes. They're more along the lines of Oh. I guess that wasn't a fart. Thanks for the comments and feedback.

mxperry220 said:

Welcome to the Club

Unfortunately this seems to be a side effect of the treatments.  I am 4 years 3 months post treatment and still take 2 immodium daily.  Even though I have no diarrhea I have several BMs daily.  I am now taking an over the counter product named TruBiotics which has really decreased my BM frequency.  I asked my colon rectal sugeon about this product last week and he said to keep taking it.  It helps regulate colon acitivity and boosts the immunity system.  My BM norm before treatment was 1-2 times daily.  My new norm seems to be 3-4 times daily.  The sense of urgency has greatly diminished over the years.  For the first two years if I left the house I made sure I knew where the nearest restroom was.  Hope this helps.

Mike

For those who are motivated to do so, growing your own  probiotics with kefir granules is the most effective way to get the benefits, the wide spectrum of probiotics and the maximum bioavailability.  It takes some finesse but once you get the hang of it, it's actually quite easy and once you do get the hang of it, the only thing required is a steady supply of milk to ferment (goat or cow) and a taste for kefir (although you can add things to it if you don't like the taste...fruit for example, to create a smoothie).  I happen to like the taste, thick, tart and sour so I just drink it straight. Also, if you tend toward diarrhea, you let it ferment from 24-36 hours, if you tend towards constipation, you don't let it ferment beyond 12.  The cultures are live and you need to keep them alive by feeding them a steady supply of milk (they "eat" the lactose [[sugar]]).  Anyway, it's the best way to maximize the benefits of probiotics, since you're dealing with live cultures, not supplements.  If anyone wants more info, ask me.