After surgery bm. What is normal?

Ok this is bothering me since surgery. I understand I am not eating much so my bm's are going to be less frequent, But before surgery I was going multiple times a day and now it's usually once every 4-5 days.  And it is usually like giving birth.  Is this normal?

Battling the "Turdinator"?

BTDT even at a year out.  Record is a three pounder that took twenty minutes to eliminate.  I had weighed before hand and left the evidence alone.  Took two flushes and a plunger to get rid of it.

May have to go to a daily stool softener, add a tad of fiber or up the water.  Later on, when you can do foods again, the little bit of fat you take in will help.  Too much fat will lead to "oil slicks".  The runny crap that floats on top of the water.

Like you I was a multicrapper.  Now one good a day and I'm set.  Problem is that the one a day may come anytime!  Not on a "schedule" like I was pre op.

 Mike,
I had my surgery two days after you and I go about once every three days or so.  I usually don't have to give it the old heave-ho to get it out the back door but it has happened once or twice.  My wife had her surgery fifteen days before us and she's pretty much the same as me.  I just seem to have more gas than what I did pre-surgery.
Duane

I know what you mean. Sometimes it is very loose, but most of the time it is very, let us say compacted and painful.

Everyone who knew me before me knew I was very gaseous and that hasn't changed any since surgery.

Pushing out a beer can is normal for the first year.  Your movements will never be the same as they were b4 surgery, but it does get better.  You will always have a lower absorbsion rate which gives you more elimination.  I need to use a plunger almost every time.  I take a viamin E suppliment to soften, and flax seed for fiber.

I was just the opposite.  Post-op for the first 7+ years my BMs were loose and frequent--even from the beginning.  Due to problems with healing along the staple line, I had difficulty sitting up or getting out of bed and had a hospital bed and portable toilet set up in my living room.  Even with that I had a difficult time making it from the bed to the toilet in time.  Luckily, for the first month post-op, my parents came to stay with us and my Dad was available 24/7 to help me get to the toilet and to clean me up afterwards (wipe me, etc****il I could reach on my own ( or with an assistance appliance).  My wife was sorry to see them leave after a month, but I was able to wipe myself by then.  That was one job my wife said she would never do.

I found that strange because she dressed the wound around my scar every day for about 6 months.  There was problem with draining and healing. 

I had the same problem.  Baseballs, beer cans, giant bananas.  Plunger next to toilet.  One time I was on the pot 1/2 hour and using a popcycle stick to break it up.  Iam 6 mos out and make sure I get alot of fluids in each day.  No problems now.  Its  like clockwork each morning.  I make sure I go b4 I leave the house.  These pot trips can have problems.
Good luck

I started out with very loose, runny stool, but 15 days post-op the stools are well formed and coming about every other day.  Last night was the first time I pushed out a real log, and I marveled at the work of art I created.  But I haven't had any issues that require a softener or anything.

One good thing - fewer tire tracks in my shorts!!!!

At first, a few months after, it was literally crapping bricks. SOmeone on this board suggested chewable Benefiber (sugarless, of course). I've taken them ever since, three a day. Also, a little olive oil helps grease the skids, as it were.
Like others mention here, though, the turds have tended to be monsters. Keep a plunger handing.
:)