5 Loose Bowels / Day While On Imodium

Hey Frank, the more I'm reading here, the more convinced I am that you are taking in a whole bunch of substances that are very likely to be aggravating your condition. Dump the Stevia. Dump all the protein supplements that contain any kind of milk product, including whey isolate. (You could go to an egg based supplement if you can't get your protein in from food.) Dump anything with ANY sugar or white flour. Etc.

Seriously. It's true elimination diet time here. Go back to total clear liquids, hell even WATER for a day and start over. Get your gut under control and then add ONE food at a time and see what happens. One food at a time means like one food per DAY.

Ah the dreaded evil IBS!  You poor sod it is awful.  Have you had an x-ray of your bowel?  This should show any dilated loops of bowel i.e. swelling.  If there is swelling then it wouldn't hurt reverting back to the liquid post op diet for a couple of weeks (yes will make bum wee worse initally) while the swelling slowly subsides then reintroduce bland foods until you're rocking again. 

It's not fair when things like this happen.  I wish you a speedy resolution of your symptoms. Immodium isn't much fun either!

Looks like you've got a lot of amazing advice here!  I only have one personal experience:  mine get very loose when I don't eat enough fiber (and I easily go 5 times a day when I'm losing).  I don't count carbs but I'm careful about simple ones - however it all gets pretty loose and then I'll add in an apple or some of my oatmeal/protein pancakes and never fails the next day they are more firm.  So might try adding in a bit of fiber to see how it goes.  good luck!  I'm sure you'll sort it out.

Dude.  What I'd do if I were you is start a detailed food diary.  Do that for a week or so, and don't forget to write down how many Stevia packets per day.  At the same time, chart your poo history.  You should be able to see a correlation between the offending item and the diahrrea this way. 

If you are unwilling to do an "elimination diet", or don't know what it is, you are doomed to keep this up indefinitely.  You're going to have to put on your Sherlock Holmes detective cap and look into this seriously before you see any improvement. 

I agree - elimination diet first, then see what else is causing the problems.  For me, I did 2 rounds of Flagyl, after testing for C-Diff.  Then found the Chia seeds.  I take between 1-3tsp dry, dump in mouth, then wash down with water.  They'll suck up that extra liquid and firm you up.  It's also a great fiber and protein.  I'm LI and the pills never help - in fact it seems worse when I've taken the pills to help.  Also, whey bothers me and now wheat.  Finding your triggers means going back to basics.  Oh yes, the SF stuff - kills my guts almost as bad as the Sugar Alcohols (SA) - anything w/*itol on the end - Malitol is especially evil.  4-8 hrs of horrendous gas, pains and explosive diarrhea.

Up your calcium, and have all the iron tests done.  Also, how is your PTH? 

Wow... THANKS EVERYBODY!

I didn't expect so much good advice. It looks like I'll be able to get this under control, it's just going to take some experimentation over time.

I've started the elimination / addition process, one thing at a time to make sure I know the effect each is having. I'll post an update down the road.

THANKS AGAIN!!!