Another poop/gas question - I'm so sorry!

Hello all.

I am new here.  Have been checking out the lay of the land for the past few weeks.  I have DS surgery scheduled for Nov. 15.

First of all, thank you to all the veterans who post here, as well as to those newer posters whose accounts of their experiences have also been extremely helpful to me in planning my next steps to address what is now a fairly unmanageable amount of body weight.

I am lucky in that my sister had DS surgery about 18 months ago, so I feel like she blazed this trail for me to a large extent.  I've been annoying her with many of questions to which I otherwise would have sought answers here.  I am a little hesitant to post this particular question today, as there seems to be some strong feelings running through some of the posts about misinformation regarding the post-op poop/gas situation, but what the hell.

I read on DS Facts that there was a study in which it was determined that just over 80% of post DS patients have no long-term issues with their bowel movements.  I took this to mean not just in terms of number, but also malodor.  Is that the experience here as well?  As you may have deduced from my user name, I'm a lawyer.  As a result, I have serious concerns about my ability to be in court post surgical recovery. 

I certainly have a good idea that many of you are able to manage this post-surgery downside with attention to your food choices.  What I am hoping for is not so much individual experiences - although your accounts of them have been very helpful too - but rather, what is the sense of those here for the percentages - i.e., do most get to a point where they are able to manage their days "odor free" outside of the bathroom/toilet?  Does anyone have a sense of percentages?  I note that the study identified on DS Facts was from 1997, which leads me to wonder if there are not different (hopefully even better?) results 14 years later.  Is there another study out there?  I love the studies.

I apologize for the length - chalk it up to the lawyer thing - why say something in 5 words when you can use 15.  My best to you all.  Thanks for whatever insights you can provide.

You will need a period of adjustment to learn what you CAN eat and what you can't and it's a YMMV thing.

In your situation, my mornings...especially court days...would be tried-and-true breakfast and lunch.  I'd eat bacon and eggs and cheese.  Not toast.  Not a cinnamon roll.  During recess, a pack of string cheese. maybe, and maybe some nuts.  Lunch would NOT, for me, be most salads because salads use too much real estate and don't satisfy for long.  Steak sandwich, no bread.  Shrimp ****tail...or two.  Maybe a cobb salad, hold the lettuce...or at least don't mix it all together in the kitchen.  Until I knew how I might react, I'd limit morning lactose intake...and flour intake.

Don't worry about the length; we're used to Diana.  And argument is also welcome as far as I'm concerned...I come from a family full of cops, lawyers and judges and every "discussion" starts to sound like closing arguments in the penalty phase of a capital case. 

Thanks, Cal Culator!  I will definately follow your suggestions to see what works for me.  It's good to know that it doesn't mean a week of not eating between 7am and 6pm.  You cracked me up about your family.  One cop in ours.

 LOL on the Diana thing.

Yeah......I was having a little fun telling jokes to myself.  Busted!

I wish I could give you the answer in the kind of format you're wanting. Your point about that study being from 1997 is valid. There are some newer ones that talk about overall satisfaction and such, though I think they tend to be from smaller cohorts. Perhaps someone can give you more links to that kind of thing.

For me it really is almost entirely food choice related. Once in a while a food nabs me unexpectedly, but it's rare.

A couple times a year I find it helpful to do a course of Flagyl. I do get out-of-sorts bacterial issues that respond well to that therapy. I don't do a maintenance dose, but if I had to, I would.

Once in a while I get into a situation where an odor leaks out. I carry Ozium for this purpose. I use citrus essential oils in the bowl and Ozium for the air when I have to poop in a public restroom. That's certainly more than 99% of the population does for their restroom hygiene.

Thank you, Elizabeth!  I wish I wasn't so freaked out at the prospect of having this get away from me in public, but there it is.  I will look into the Ozium and essential oils, and keep Flagyl in mind if needed.

This is NOT a trivial matter for someone in your line of work. I totally understand. (Well, it's not trivial for anyone, but hey, if you work outdoors that's a big difference already....)

There is another attorney on here, NOT Diana of course, *****fused to change his eating or to do a damned thing to help himself, and then couldn't understand why he couldn't keep clients or a job. Hmmm. He's bothered by still being fat, too. Gee.

Early out this will be a significant learning curve. You'll want to be SUPER careful with what you eat on the days that count the most, and save your experimentation for when you have a window of opportunity to observe and catalog results .

I'm sure you will also have a stronger will and better memory in the face of temptation than I do. This past summer I was at the Montana Folk Festival in Butte, www.montanafolkfestival.com , and succumbed to the lure of a regional delight, a huckleberry milkshake. The results interrupted my festival enjoyment, shall we say gently. I'll spare you the raucous fart humor version. It was really obnoxious and miserable.

Somehow I managed to not recall what happened the LAST time I had a milkshake a couple years previously . This time it might stick with me longer *sigh*.

I think I'm good with the idea that there are now going to be things that I CANNOT eat and still be in "polite society" / not run off my clients and law partners.  The thing that's been haunting me is the notion that it might be unmanageable.  I think that it's starting to sink in that this should be mostly manageable to outright manageable.  I am, however, someone who likes certainty, so "mostly" is going to take some time to get my head around.  Sometimes you just have to say "**** em if they can't take a joke!" - or if they can't make an allowance for a medical condition.  Thanks again for helping out with this.

i realize this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but i've been to many DS support groups, with dozens of post ops, that lasted hours on end, through meals, etc.  none of these lovely people had an unpleasant odor about them.  never once do i recall anyone rushing to the bathroom unexpectedly.