I am currently taking 8 immodiums a day, four in the morning and four before bed, along with Metamucil before each meal.

I asked my surgeon about lomotil and he said its the same stuff as immodium and on this basis did not give me a script for it. Is this correct?

Has anyone tried tincture of opium? I understand it slows the bowels?

For me the hours between 4pm and 8pm are the most active. (I'm three years post takedown) I usually go once when I get up in the morning then not all day until around 4:00pm. So during those evening hours I usually go 3 or 4 times. It can be a bit of a pain when you go out at night but I guess I have just gotten used to it. I can get in and out of the bathroom now as quick as urinating.

I am two years post reversal and evenings continue to be my most active period (or one of them anyway). I have had to be much more strategic when going out at night but it hasn't stopped me.

Immodium and lomotil are not the same thing. They are similar chemically and both are used for treating diarrhea but are quite distinct from each other. I have tried both and they behave differently too - at least for me.

There have been several discussions about tincture of opium. You may want to do a quick search on the topic to see what has been said to date. But it does slow the bowels along with other drugs like oxycodone and hydrocodone. In fact I use oxycodone in the form of percocet from time to time, especially in the evenings when I want to go out, to slow things down. It is the only thing that I have found so far that works for me without any undesirable side effects.

A doc that's afraid of Lomotil would probably be incapable of considering DTO (deodorized tincture of opium). TinCan got it right - Imodium and Lomotil are quite different, and many of us seem to get quite different results from the two. It's essentially impossible to abuse Lomotil - the atropine they add is of no consequence at appropriate doses but quite unpleasant if people try to get a buzz from the diphenoxylate.

As far as whether things settle down, most folks report that they do. I thnk part of it is we get to know our bodies better, how we react to different foods and circumstances, and how far we can push push ourselves.