Pepto Bismol & Immodium

Immodium is just a bowel slower. It won't do anything to help get rid of pouchitis. It will help with the frequency symptom, but that's it. PB works sort of like an antibiotic...how exactly, I have no idea. It can clear up pouchitis symptoms or help keep it at bay.

As for chewable vs. tablets, I prefer the tablets, because your tongue will turn black after using the chewables. You can always brush it off, but it's annoying.

Thank you so much.

I just looked up Florax and discovered that it contains Sacchromyces cerevisiae. I can't be sure, but the description sounds like it is actually S. boulardii. Either way it is a fungal form of probiotic whereas vsl is bacterial. I have no idea if it would work better than vsl - probably depends upon your particular situation and the dosage (which I didn't find on the Florax website). If you are taking cipro, however, the Florax may be of benefit since it will be unaffected by the antibiotic.

I currently take Florastor along with vsl#3 ds. Florastor is also S. boulardii and has been around for quite a while.

I take s.boulardii probiotics to help keep c.diff infections at bay and VSL#3DS to keep pouchitis away. I take Imodium to slow things down when I'm eating food like fruit smoothies. My Mayo GI specialist told me to quit pepto and digestive enzimes. He also didn't mention metamucil just Imodium and up to 8 a day with at least one at bedtime to help keep the night time trips and associated wake ups down.

I have chronic cuffitis and IPS. I have had frequent c-diff infections. I take Flagyl for the c-diff infections. I can't take Cipro and some other antibiotics because they can bring back the c-diff infection. So what the antibiotic I'm take off and on is geared for a different problem than what you are fighting.

Please make sure to space your probiotics and antibiotics usage 3-4 hours apart or they sort of cancel each other out. For lack of a better way of putting it. I think it explains it better on the insert in the VSL#3DS box.

I know they say it takes a year to heal after the surgeries. It appears as you are a little past a year. When I got to a year I was really disappointed to find out I had cuffitis and it took 8 or 9 months to get completely rid of it and c-diff. I also discovered along the way I have IPS and chronic cuffitis so I take maintenance medication for cuffitis. I'm not at 2.5 years yet but feel better than last year. My pouch and I did a lot of growing up this last year and things are better.

In the beginning some warned me on here that it can take longer than a year and sometimes 3. I thought they were nuts. What surgery can take that long to recover from? Well it is this one can, for me anyway. I'm glad I was on here to have everyone's support or I probably would have lost it!

As far as your husband and son go, I email my husband and adult children articles that I think they might gain some insight into my world from. I doubt they read them all but hopefully they skim them and get the main idea.

I'm taking the anti-spasmodic too, helps with the IPS.

Good Luck

My body is still adjusting 2 decades later. It's always a new adventure, not something that changes frequently, but I'd say there are changes in 5 year chunks for me, mostly for the better, but sometimes not.

Plus, this surgery is now around 30ish years old. As we live longer and longer with these pouches, I'm sure they'll note more and more things that can happen in time. I was 19 when I had it done. I'm 42 soon... I'm sure at 80 things might even change more.