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Hi everyone - I am new here...and very uninformed, so bear with me! lol

My husband has the jpouch. He's 30 now, and had the surgery when he was 21 before I met him. When I first started to date him, he was on muscle relaxers, pain medicine, anxiety medicine, and probably others I don't even know or remember. Long story short, he was on A LOT of medicine. He has horrible arthritis, mainly in his knees, and has always taken pain meds for that, however, it was always a goal of his to get off of them. 

About a year into our relationship, he did prolotherapy (spelling?) for his knees. Very costly, but it worked wonders for him. Fast forward to today, he's off ALL of his pain medicine, and the only prescriptions he now has are a muscle relaxer (low dose, when he needs it) and a low dose anxiety med. He always says "this is the healthiest I've been" and I'm very proud of him. After being somewhat dependent on these drugs, I know it is liberating for him to no longer need them.

A few months ago, he was having a lot of stomach issues, mainly at night. He was losing sleep from having to use the bathroom constantly. After getting an upper endoscopy, we found he just had some signs of inflammation, in which the doctor prescribed flagyl. Flagyl helped a lot, but as soon as he ran out of it, his issues came back. He was given another round, and the same happened. After trying to get more of it, his gastro doc told him "I really don't like prescribing flagyl long term. I will give you more, but only take it when you absolutely need it." He wanted him to also try this probiotic, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I have read many mix reviews on flagyl...some here say they've been on it 20+ years with no issues, and others swear they've developed problems. My husband did experience joint numbness, which I read can be a side effect.

I guess my question is, are there any other options for him other than the antibiotics and probiotics? He doesn't necessarily have pouchitis, but I'm guessing he does have an overgrowth of bacteria causing him these issues. Are there foods he should be avoiding (he's a huge carb eater, and is pretty stubborn when it comes to food...he eats whatever he wants, and in very large quantities.) Not sure if there's a site that offers diet guidelines for someone like him, but I am willing to try since I cook the food! 

And...on a completely unrelated topic....I'd like to hear from a few men on here...we will be trying to conceive and I'm worried for whatever reason, we will have trouble. Does this surgery effect a man's fertility in any way? I'm hoping to hear some success stories from a few dad's on here! I guess it's just something I've always worried about...and now that we are actually discussing when we want to try, it's been weighing on my mind. 

Thanks for all the help!

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Fertility wise, the quick answer is no a jpouch will not affect it, nor will flagyl.  A few men do have dysfunction after the op but it usually improves.  Any issues are usually physical (getting an erection) rather than damage to the swimmers themselves.

 

Regarding the first part of your query is hard to say without a diagnosis.  You say endoscopy and stomach, that is the other end of the digestive tract, and not something we on this forum would have much experience with.  Did you mean endoscopy or pouchoscopy?  Did you mean stomach or were your trying to politely refer to the bowel?  Probiotics are for the bowel, and won't help with stomach issues, companies spend a lot of money developing the products so they transport to the bowel without being affected by the stomach.

 

If you can clarify a bit in sure someone will be able to provide some advice

It must be really frustrating and tiring for you both to be losing sleep at night. I guess that's not uncommon at the beginning for us pouchers but I would have expected it to settle down by now. It sounds like there's definitely a problem, so perhaps it's worth pushing for a second opinion on getting the right medication to help with it?

As for sex - I was warned erectile dysfunction might be a problem when I had the op (I was 18 at the time) but it's never been an issue, nor has sex drive. I don't have kids yet, so I can't speak for my fertility levels!

This sounds like pouchitis to me. If it always comes back after a course of antibiotics then it's what's called antibiotic-dependent pouchitis. The most common treatment for that is continuous antibiotic therapy, ideally rotating between several different antibiotics at 2-3 week intervals. If his doctor is too inexperienced to manage this without losing his nerve (or reading more about it), you may need to find a better gastroenterologist.

I'm on Flagyl all the time, but I f I were getting hand or foot numbness from it I'd stop it forever. I don't know what "joint numbness" means, though. There are plenty of other antibiotic choices available, and a knowledgeable gastroenterologist would know about them.

Some people treat this with biologic medications instead of antibiotics, and that can also work well.

Good luck!

Thanks for your replies! I have a few updates. My husband decided about 2 weeks ago to go on a vegan diet. Weird, I know...considering his condition. My friend actually has the same surgery and when I told her she thought he was insane and said a plant based diet would really screw her up and she'd end up in the hospital! I myself was a vegetarian for a long time. I've wanted to switch it a vegan diet but it's often hard, especially cooking for two. However after doing some research and watching "what the health" my husband threw away all of our meat and dairy. I said I would do my best to find recipes that I thought would be OK on his stomach. Flash forward to two weeks later, his nightly issues are completely gone. Now, I don't know if this is necessarily the "plants" at work...but I think it's a mixture of both. He would often eat very unhealthy late at night and I think that contributed to some issues he was having. But, his joint pain is gone, and his stomch pain is gone, and he wakes up maybe once to use the bathroom during the night, as opposed to 4 or 5 times. I'm not trying to advocate as I know many jpouchers would probably get sick - but so far, this diet seems to be working for him! I think I've read on here (or another message board site) some vegan jpouchers, so I'm trying to do my research and figuring out what meals/veggies work best. I've been doing a lot of savory oats/veggies..rice/veggies. Also some lentils and beans. So far, so good...here's to hoping it stays this way! 

Greek yogurt with LIVE cultures is sooo much better for the gut and intestines to balance things n help the body do what it needs to. eliminating sugar will also help hugely as that is what will feed candida, yeast  and other bacteria.

flagyl can have some long term negative effects and destroys the bodies Natural ability to make healthy gut cultures.  myself, I'm highly allergic to flagyl .  might be good to see a colon/rectal doc to determine if its the stomach or the colon; I've found CR docs to be much more helpful than gi docs.

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