Diarrhea

FYI for those who get diarrhea, the culprit maybe something else, but I notice when I eat a banana it does firm it up. I typically get diarrhea when I have too much carbs or sugar, soda will especially do it for me...Pepsi, my favorite will definitely give me the runs.   TMI but I have read a couple of emails in need of help. You have to keep trying until you figure out what works for you. Try, try,try.......

Bananas are very much full of sugar and will likely make some people have diarrhea instead of helping. Every one is different but I would never advise someone with the DS to eat a banana for anything. 

Eating a banana also helps me with diarrhea. I call it my one desert. I do not eat them daily but I do eat them. They firm me up and make the poo slippery. Ease of pooping when I eat them. Love the consistency. The other thing that works great is taking fiber three times a day. Other than an ocassional banana and low sugar jelly at times I stay away from sugar otherwise. When I do eat anything with sugar it usually only has 2-5 grams per serving. White sugars tear me up. Fruit sugars do not bother me as bad. I never drink soda with sugar and rarely diet soda as well. To harsh on my tummy. I will drink sugar free ginger ale. I drink lots of lemon ginger hot tea with probiotics in it. I have not had diarrhea in about three months now. Now if I can just get rid of this fissure.

I found a recipe that I love when I am craving sweet packed carbs but do not want to kill myself on white flower and sugar. 

One banana and two eggs. Put it in a blender until runny. Put some butter in a pan and pour the batter in making little silver dollar pancakes. You get a crepe like banana pancake full of potassium and protein. (sugar too but fructose) Add some peanut butter to it and enjoy. I add a smiggen of honey sometimes but usually I just eat it like a peanut butter sandwich. They are fantastic. For some reason bananas do not give me gas or bother my system like anything else with sugar does. /shrug

Hi Irishnurse,

That is awesome advise, thanks for adding in your comment.  After the comment above I was starting to feel a little cray cray, but I have to remember with this surgery almost every body responds differently. 

I was wondering why do I even have diarrhea, I noticed when I take my antacid my poop is solid for that day, plus my stomach no longer bubbles.  My question I need to ask my doctor is what is going on with my lower intestines that I have diarrhea unless I do something about it on a daily basis.  This is something I will be finding out.

Also I was reading your page and you mentioned about the constant poop.  You state "I hate the poopy thing. It is not necessarily diarrhea. It is regular poop too. It is just painful to go. I never completely empty out because of the small amount of foods I am eating it is spread out in my intestines....I guess. So I go...then I go again....then I go again....and the strain my intestines go through to get it all down is painful and tiring. I wished it would all just come at once. LOL. Three times this morning so far and I can still feel that I am not done. I have to go to work soon. I know this is all gross but it is honest grossness. I miss just having a BIG GIANT poo turd rather than all these little tiny poos that take ten times more push and three trips to the toilet,  to get out. What is that all about????"

Well at least you are going majority of the time in the morning  before work, and others do not have to smell the poo.  What might help that another DSers advised me, is I stop eating real food after 5 pm every day.  I can snack, but no real food like meat or a meal.  When I stick to this regimen, I normally go to the bathroom before I go to bed and when I wake up, and depending on what I eat I can waith to go to the restroom once I get home.   Before this regimen I would go to the bathroom all during the day.   But with the regimen by the time I get to work I am completely empty, no food in the intestines.   The evenings I snack and drink my ginger tea, decaf coffee with powder creme,popcorn, skins,  even have a snicker bar in the evening. Perhaps this can give you a little bit of resolution.

Right now because you are still in the weight loss phase, bless your heart on going to the bathroom because it does slow down.  Lose as much as you can and do not worry about the bathroom because during my weight loss process I worried, and now I feel I do not go as much because I want to lose weight.  If I was smart, I would have poo as much as possible and got down perhaps 15-20 pounds below my comfort size.  Because like most if you do not change your bad habits you will gain weight.  Right now I need to lose 12 pounds and I will be content, anything lower than that does not make me look good in the face.  Loose skin.

And on the smelling of the poo, not sure if you have this problem, because yes I am paranoid, my family is very vocal...which I am glad to certain degree.  But once I changed my probiotics to 25 billion the odor is not as strong, I guess I needed more good bacteria in my system.  Its not clear from the  odor but it is okay. Plus of course ice cream and sugar soda makes it smell unbearable...I am lactose intolerant.

Sunshine.

I eat fairly clean and my poo hardly smells worse than normal poo now. I take four imodium per day, 8 probiotics a day, eat three yogurts per day and drink ginger tea. I also take gas-ex four times per day. This has really helped with the smell. 

Today I had Two protein shakes, three yogurts, ginger tea, ginger ale 10, four breadless sandwich rollups with cheese and ham (spaced out), One taco, two protein bars and a banana. As long as I eat clean I rarely smell to bad. 

Oh Wow, you do eat well.  Well this is still training as I go for me.  Thank you

Mostly I eat clean all day. Dinner is where it becomes iffy. I try and make great choices, usually chicken and a veggie but sometimes I have a taco or Chinese. Bananas do not seem to make me smell bad. I can be bad on the weekends too. I had those banana pancakes Sunday Morning with honey and peanutbutter. They are not really BAD per say but they do cause gas when you add honey. Sunday I was farting it up but it was worth it. LOL. I cannot afford to be stinky. I am in the car all day and in and out of patient's houses. If I have to go to the bathroom I have to find a gas station. Eating clean is just important to me. I also cannot afford diarrhea due to the fissure because it will keep it from healing. I keep my diarrhea under control through eating properly. 

There is nothing wrong with cheating every now and then but DSers should know it is the diet and vitamins that help with the diarrhea and smell.  If you have diarrhea issues then you need to step back and look at what is causing them. Mine was not diet but lack of fiber, calcium and iron. I increased those and it stopped. 

Do most DSrs have to take Imodium every day? Just trying to get my head around what will be my new "norm".

Thanks!

No, I have what they call Bilesalts diarrhea  from my Gall bladder being removed 20 years ago. I have lived with acidic diarrhea on and off for 20 years. The DS just made it worse because I go every day now and my bowels are more sensitive now. I am highly sensitive to sugar alcohols and I had a six month reaction to sugar alcohol which is what caused my fissure. I now have to check everything for sugar alcohols.  I take Imodium every day per my Doctor advice due to the bile salts diarrhea. The only other medication for it will interfere with with my absorption of vitamins. That is dangerous for a DSer so I control it with Imodium. You can have issues with diarrhea if your vitamins, calcium  or iron are off. I had this problem. I fixed my diarrhea issue with changing my Calcium, fiber and iron intake as well as taking Imodium. 

Diarrhea can also be from eating badly with too many carbs and sugars. This was not my case. I ate clean  and did food deductions just to figure out what was causing my issue. The ladies here helped me figure out that it was calcium, fiber and iron issues.