I read the jpouch can hold 1 cup,250ml of stool.Ive found lately meal portion sizes make a huge difference, and the feeling of hunger soon passes if you keep your mind busy.

It depends on YOU. If you decide to listen to the advice of your surgeon and hold your stools in as long as possible, it will expand. If you decide to be a knucklehead and not listen to that advice, if will expand minimally or not much. It's really that simple.

I see we have revived a 6 year old thread so the OP has either had the necessary expansion or not by now, and any other posts are likely pointless at this point in time as far as her pouch goes.

Hmm, this is very interesting……

I have never come across this nearly  7 year old thread.
I have never even heard of this and neither my surgeon nor GI have never mentioned this to me.

So please forgive my naivety, but I can hold my stool after I get the urge to go.

Are we suppose to hold it in as long as possible to try and expand it?

I am just curious here and I have had my share of functional issues.

Is this something most pouchers attempt to accomplish?

thank you.

Blimey I had forgotten I had posted this. Happy to say 6 years on all is good. I think the main issues for me at the beginning was dealing with butt burn and the gas. That made me need to go a lot more times and was not to do with the pouch being full

@New577 posted:

Hmm, this is very interesting……

I have never come across this nearly  7 year old thread.
I have never even heard of this and neither my surgeon nor GI have never mentioned this to me.

So please forgive my naivety, but I can hold my stool after I get the urge to go.

Are we suppose to hold it in as long as possible to try and expand it?

I am just curious here and I have had my share of functional issues.

Is this something most pouchers attempt to accomplish?

thank you.

I certainly got the advice to delay bathroom trips, and it served me well. I’d suggest doing this gently rather than aggressively. As long as I don’t have active pouchitis I would describe my sensation as a feeling of fullness rather than an urge, at least at the earlier stages of delay.

Ditto on Scott's post above. My surgery was in 1992 with Dr. Irwin Gelernt who was one of the pioneers of the J Pouch and studied under Dr. Nils Kock. He at that time was considered the best J Pouch surgeon in the USA. He gave me a pamphlet of post surgical instructions and heavily emphasized holding stools in as long as possible in the 6 months after getting the J Pouch. He told me it would expand the pouch because the very point of a J Pouch is what? Stool storage! So holding it in assists the pouch in expanding and adapting to that function. I had always been told this was an industry standard.

@Shainy posted:

Blimey I had forgotten I had posted this. Happy to say 6 years on all is good. I think the main issues for me at the beginning was dealing with butt burn and the gas. That made me need to go a lot more times and was not to do with the pouch being full

Hello,I don't want to be annoying but I was wondering if your jpouch continued to improve each year or if it hasn't changed much since the 1,2,3 year marks .has it become more colon like,do you still take any meds?are you happy with it?

@Chook2 posted:

Hello,I don't want to be annoying but I was wondering if your jpouch continued to improve each year or if it hasn't changed much since the 1,2,3 year marks .has it become more colon like,do you still take any meds?are you happy with it?

Hi. I am happy with my J Pouch. I take one immodium before bedtime every day. I would say that the function of my pouch highly depends on what I do.

The keys for me are not overeating and avoiding butt burn by using wipes and finding the right balance of time for sitting on the toilet to empty everything but not staying on too long so that the output starts to burn the skin

I stress the key is not overeating. I can pretty much eat what I want but if I eat too much it means more emptying usually at night.

Another thing I do every day is drink a large coffee (latte) before breakfast and this flushes everything out of the pouch. Not sure if this makes any difference but I read on here that it could help prevent pouchitis