@rrip posted:

Kh1988, Yes I drink Miralax at least twice a day & often 3 times. And a month ago I was in a nasty atv accident and due to several broken bones I took pain meds for a week as well as dulcolax stool softener, & for some reason the day after the accident, I began passing liquid stool about 4-6 times a day with much less difficulty. And a month later I still take 4 dulcolax pills a day, no pain meds, and things are still moving along very well. I visited with my j pouch surgeon last week and she said 4 dulcolax pills a day if they are helping are just fine. It seems odd to be missing my entire large intestine and rectum and need a stool softener, but I honestly feel a lot better, even with 9 broken bones. My surgeon also thinks my sphincter is the cause of my problems & I also have no strictures or blockages. So maybe you should take 4 dulcolax throughout a day or 2 and see if it helps.

Sorry the oatmeal stopped working, do you still eat it??? And glad your pain is better

My new plumbing just seems to be bound and determined to make things difficult.

@rrip posted:

My new plumbing just seems to be bound and determined to make things difficult.

I am not sure what that means? Do you mean you are still constipated? If so, some people use catheters/enemas to empty their pouch, that might help you

@rrip posted:

Kh1988, your symptoms seem to be exactly the same as mine. I have good days, but my body has struggled releasing stool since my takedown on 3/21/18. Common sense tells me that my stool would be liquid and easy to release but that is not the case. My j pouch is doing everything it can to act like a normal rectum and form a stool, so of course that makes things difficult. Oatmeal helped for a couple of weeks, but without miralax twice a day or stool softeners, or both, it just doesn't work how I think it should. My 42 year old neighbor Nancy had 1 polyp turn into stage 4 colon cancer diagnosed in May of this year and she died Oct 2 and didn't even have FAP or a genetic issue, & I have both FAP and a genetic disposition to colon cancer and at 53 had over 1000 pre cancerous polyps discovered during my 1st ever colonoscopy and am still  completely cancer free. Everytime I have a difficult day I think of Nancy getting a colonoscopy after my issues scared her, & 4 months later she died. It doesn't help me to feel better during a difficult day or night, but it sure puts things into perspective.

Gosh, we do sound so similar! I’ve been doing miralax twice a day now and it helps but still not as much as I’d like. Seems like one dose of the miralax helps one time and then I’m back to being blocked up again and unable to empty unless I take it again. Water enemas seem to work best for me. Once I use one, I’m able to sit down and my body will let it empty it right back out. My doctor said when stool is basically water, the sphincter just cannot hold that back and will finally release where as thicker stool is much easier for the sphincter to hang onto. My body is ridiculously good at absorbing fluids and leaving my stool thick. It doesn’t matter what I eat! I swear I’d love to have some diarrhea hahaha. Not really, lol but just once I’d love to have my stool naturally thin. Just terrible about your neighbor! That’s so sad. It does put things into perspective though. Sometimes when I get down, I also think about others in waaay worse situations and I realize how fortunate I really am.

@rrip posted:

Kh1988, Yes I drink Miralax at least twice a day & often 3 times. And a month ago I was in a nasty atv accident and due to several broken bones I took pain meds for a week as well as dulcolax stool softener, & for some reason the day after the accident, I began passing liquid stool about 4-6 times a day with much less difficulty. And a month later I still take 4 dulcolax pills a day, no pain meds, and things are still moving along very well. I visited with my j pouch surgeon last week and she said 4 dulcolax pills a day if they are helping are just fine. It seems odd to be missing my entire large intestine and rectum and need a stool softener, but I honestly feel a lot better, even with 9 broken bones. My surgeon also thinks my sphincter is the cause of my problems & I also have no strictures or blockages. So maybe you should take 4 dulcolax throughout a day or 2 and see if it helps.

So sorry about your accident, sounds awful! I’m glad the dulcolax pills are helping. Maybe I’ll try that too! Same here...it blows my mind that I don’t have a colon yet my stool is soo thick that I require miralax and enemas. But in addition to that, I only go to the bathroom a few times a day. I don’t know if my small intestines are slow or something? But I rarely have a major feeling of needing to go? I usually feel a little something and I initiate the bathroom visit bc it will have been forever since I went! There’s always stool in there too but I wonder why I never have a major feeling of needing to go. I’d would just wait longer to go but I do get concerned that my pouch is full and it will get too big or something? Like get oversized. I don’t know, it’s just a mystery lol

My symptoms are very much like yours.

@rrip posted:

My symptoms are very much like yours.

How are you doing now???

I'm doing fairly well, a big improvement from the first 2 weeks for sure. The healing ability of the human body truly fascinates me. If someone would have told me 3 years ago I'd lose my large intestine & break 8 bones in the near future I wouldn't have believed them. I know this; the colon surgeries didn't hurt anywhere near as much as the first week after this accident.

@rrip posted:

I'm doing fairly well, a big improvement from the first 2 weeks for sure. The healing ability of the human body truly fascinates me. If someone would have told me 3 years ago I'd lose my large intestine & break 8 bones in the near future I wouldn't have believed them. I know this; the colon surgeries didn't hurt anywhere near as much as the first week after this accident.

Yeah I bet! I could not imagine going through everything you are going through. You are a trooper and are doing great!! I hope you are all healed up for 2021!

Is your friendship with him still doing okay???

My friendship with him & everyone else is a million times more valuable than any accident. It's my fault anyway for not wearing a seat belt. The driver calls me several times a week to see how I'm doing and his step father told me that my injuries have tormented him so I again called him (Jake) yesterday and told him to stop worrying about it. Once I found out I that had no organ or head damage I have been nothing but thankful. I really think I have a personal angel or God himself taking care of me because I have escaped permanent & disfiguring injuries countless times in my life, where so many others have not. If I could say one thing that everyone would take to heart, it would be to count your blessings and never hold a grudge. I'm upset that I can't ride my dirt bike for maybe a long time, & that is about the only thing about this that bothers me.

@rrip posted:

My friendship with him & everyone else is a million times more valuable than any accident. It's my fault anyway for not wearing a seat belt. The driver calls me several times a week to see how I'm doing and his step father told me that my injuries have tormented him so I again called him (Jake) yesterday and told him to stop worrying about it. Once I found out I that had no organ or head damage I have been nothing but thankful. I really think I have a personal angel or God himself taking care of me because I have escaped permanent & disfiguring injuries countless times in my life, where so many others have not. If I could say one thing that everyone would take to heart, it would be to count your blessings and never hold a grudge. I'm upset that I can't ride my dirt bike for maybe a long time, & that is about the only thing about this that bothers me.

You are sooo optimistic All of that is good to hear about your relationships

Before this happened, did you normally not wear a seatbelt majority of the time in your life???

This is what troubles me so much... I have never for the 40 years I've had a driver's license driven without a seat belt, & never ever even ride as a passenger without a seat belt. Even as a kid I used the seat belt without being told. The one time I go without it was in an ATV? I can't understand my thought process on that one. I really am lucky.

@rrip posted:

This is what troubles me so much... I have never for the 40 years I've had a driver's license driven without a seat belt, & never ever even ride as a passenger without a seat belt. Even as a kid I used the seat belt without being told. The one time I go without it was in an ATV? I can't understand my thought process on that one. I really am lucky.

That is really ironic! What made you not wear it in the ATV? Any particular reason???