So,
I don't come around this corner of the Internet much these days--those who write that people who are generally happy with their pouches are out living life are right--but something interesting happened to me over the month of December that I figured I'd share.
Post thanksgiving, I had a lengthy work trip far from home, and while there, ran out of the probiotic my surgeon had suggested from the moment of my first (of 3) surgeries. To make a long story short, I was working 12-16 hour days and was basically going from the work site to hotel and back without a chance to shop for my probiotic.
Oddly enough, pouch function seemed to improve. My 10-12 trips to the restroom per day were cut in half, gas (my main issue) was greatly reduced, and urgency and consistency were markedly improved from an already decent baseline.
On my return home, I decided to not purchase any more probiotic until after the holidays just to see if things stayed that way. So far, they have.
Obviously, this isn't for everyone, but I was taking the probiotic largely as a preventative, and it seems that either the specific blend of beasties in this formulation was not what I needed, or that my regular diet is giving me enough of micro-critters at this time.
Over Christmas, I was not remotely careful or mindful of what I crammed into my pie hole and I drank more alcohol than I have since before my surgery, and came through with nothing unexpected.
Could be this is related to healing (I'm about 13 mos post takedown now), but I'm pretty psyched about it and thought I'd share in case it might help someone else.
