My second surgery was Feb. 20, 2007, and previous to the last couple of weeks, I had felt so much better, had energy, was able to move around, now I am feeling lousy, my joints/muscles ache, I am going to the bathroom at least 20 times a day. With all of the reading on this site and others, it seems I might have pouchitis. I do have an appointment with my doctor next week. But before then please provide any thoughts any of you might have.

Thanks All!!

Sounds like pouchitis to me. I would not wait until next week for treatment. Call back and see if they can phone in a prescription for Flagyl or Cipro for you. If it works, it was definitely pouchitis. If not, you will still see the doc next week. There is no way you should have to tolerate diarrhea for that long without some treatment.

Jan

I wouldn't wait either...why suffer for another week...cipro usually works within a day for me when I have pouchitis...I hope you feel better soon.

Thanks

I will call my doctor in the morning to get a perscription, will keep you posted.

Thanks Again

I haven't posted before, but I've read a number of posts and have benefited from them so much. I hope I can add to the encouragement of those who post.
On this subject, I just learned something interesting about pouchitis symptoms. I had my takedown on Nov 1, 2006 and have had pouchitis ever since on and off. I have been on Cipro and Flagyl (which as a combo works for me pretty well!) for about 7 or 8 courses. My surgeon finally did a pouchoscopy two weeks ago and found NOTHING!!! I had been off antibiotics and suffering the week before the scope...but all was clear and perfect.

So this is what I learned. My "pouchitis" was more due to the hyper-responsiveness of my new pouch to free radicals which come from normal flora (bacteria) breaking down nutrients in the pouch as opposed to an actual infectious process.
The reason, he said, that the antibiotics reduced my symptoms (and often eliminated them) is not because they were fighting a certain infection, but that the free radicals would bind to the anitbiotics and effectively get flushed out of my system, leaving a "friendlier" environment for my new pouch.
He said I should go on the antibiotics for a few days at a time when the symptoms appeared, get some rest from all the urgency and bloating, etc, and then try to go off again after a few days or maybe a week. He said as my pouch matured (up to 2 years), I would need the antibiotics less and less as my small intestinal pouch learned how to be a large intestine in function. Eventually, I would go off the antibiotics and perhaps never have to get on them again.
I concluded myself that the danger of taking a few days worth of antibiotics and then stopping is reduced when the antibiotics are not really fighting an infection since they are not encouraging mutation of a bug (bad bacteria).
So, time will tell, but for the time being, it helps me to have patience with my syptoms because I have a hope that 1)they will go away eventually and 2)my long term antibiotics aren't as bad for my body as they would be otherwise (again, my assumption, feel free to educate if you know otherwise) and 3)I'm not really sick with an infection, I'm just investing in new "plumbing."
By the way, I am on VSL#3.

Good luck...all of you out there with these issues. May we continue to find joy despite our trials!
S-