after reversal of illestomy

If you go to UOAA.org they have a complete section on reversals. I've heard of this happening, but I haven't had mine done yet. There are a couple people on here that can give you their experiences. Good luck to your husband and I hope he feels better soon.

Kim

New "normal"
Hello! I had my reversal back in May of this year. Things were a living nightmare, to say the least, for a long time. I wish someone had told me what i'm about to tell you now...get him on probiotics! It may change everything for him. It's true he'll need to retrain his bowels, but some of the pain and agony may be lessened, or completely removed with a good probiotic. Even a glass of Kefir a day may help him some. We're not told by our GI doctors about the important balance of flora and fauna in our intestines. We, as colorectal cancer people, have very imbalanced flora, of course. It needs to get restabilized, or we don't have much hope.

I would start off with Kefir for the time being until you can get a really good probiotic. Kefir is sold nearly everywhere in the dairy or yogurt section of the supermarkets, and health food stores. If you investigate other probiotic formulas, make sure you get a type that has living bacteria. Sometimes their processing kills most of the good bacteria. I recommend Sun Is Shining by Sunfoodnutrition.com because it has both superfoods AND a lot of living probiotics. I trust this company. My best friend has worked there for seven years, and i know the owner well enough to know he's an expert on nutrition, and very passionate about everything he creates. They also have something called Ejuva that i just found out about. It has over 20 billion microorganisms per gram of powder! I know it sounds gross, but it's soooo good! I'm going to put a scoop of that in my superjuice tomorrow!

I wish you and your husband an easier recovery than what you've been going through.

Keep us posted on his progress!

Hugs,
Krista

pluckey said:

does probiotics give you diarreah?
I'M 6 weeks post reversal and am having same symptoms as poster- 3 days of no BMs and then hours and hours of the full rectum feeling and the BM "stuck" and cramping pain all the while.

i know i need to frink more water, i'm terrible at drinking fluids....but will probiotics make me have diarreah? I tried activia ONCE last year and I had the runs for 3 days

PEGGY

Activia
Peggy, i'm not sure what that Activia stuff really is. I thought it was just a fiber supplement. The probiotics shouldn't give you diarrhea, especially if they're good probiotics. My system was so messed up, the Kefir worked, and basically cured me, in one day. I have a chronic stricture that gives me some problems, but the flora in my gut is balanced enough now to where i don't get the bloated, achy, crampy feeling that is so uncomfortable and makes you feel like you constantly have to "go". I still frequent the bathroom more than the normal person, but i'm still in the process of training my bowels. At least i have much better control now. Haven't had any major accidents since probioticking! lol! I have improved on my diet greatly too, so i get tons of fiber. The water issue is also a tricky one with me. I just can't seem to get enough water down, so i occasionally get constipated. Still, everything is toned down because of the balanced flora.

Some people take the probiotics in capsule form, but i prefer powder that i can put in a shake or smoothie. The effect is more direct, and depending on how the capsules are manufactured, they may lose millions of good microbes before you ever get a chance to injest them.

Hugs!
Krista