Let's talk sh*t

Literally!

 

Folks feel so gun-shy about this subject and it’s important dammit!

 

So…while I cannot promise I can, at all times, contain my inner 12 year-old during this conversation, I do promise to TRY.

 

Let’s designate this a safe space to post any question you have related to the glorious subject of poo!

 

Do you poo? Do you poo too much? Do some foods make you poo better than others? Are you afraid your scale measurement was off because of a poo back-up?

 

What do you wanna know??? (Btw, I am also not committing to answer all these “crappy" questions. If you know the answer, help a fellow RNYer out, whydoncha???)

Anybody...Bueller?

Ok, I will start by encouraging newbies with a story. I promise it's not involved and gross.

So, picture it, Nik's mom's house, four days post-op.

Mom comes into the bedroom I am bunking in to check on me. I am curled up on the bed crying.

Mom begins to go into a LONG soliloquy about how my life will change so much, how I am doing a good thing, how it is OK to mourn the loss of food. Let it out, baby, let it out! The only thing missing was Kumbaya playing in the background.

To which I managed to stammer, through clenched teeth, "I'm not crying because I miss food. I'm crying because I'm backed up and it hurts!!!"

By day four post-op I'd not yet passed my "last supper" meal. I think it was a combination of the pain killers and the fact that, frankly, food pushes food through the digestive system and I wasn't eating anything.

It was a Sunday and my mom called my surgeon, at home, in a panic (thank goodness, my surgeon has a good sense of humor), to which he instructed her to give me Dulcolax.

I'd love to wrap this story up by saying that it helped but it did not. Only when I ceased pain meds did anything significant happen, and even that wasn't much.

So newbies...hang in there! It gets better.

 I have no problem talking sh*t!  I have seemed to have been able to poop with 3-4 tablespoons of Benefiber a day but it is such a gross consistency.  It reminds me of baby poop.  You can wipe ALL day long and there will still be some on the paper.  I also never thought I would feel nauseous when I needed to poop!

 This is what Handheld shower heads are for!

I have to admit the french did get something right!

You know you can buy relatively inexpensive "thingy" to put on your current toilet?  Or really nice ones (saw some in Costco for ~$200).  I do want that but I may have to decide if I want to be limited to just one toilet in my house..lol... (hala)

Wet wipes.  Get them... really great ... can't deal without them...

o boy... here is goes.

I do. most days - daily (at least) After my coffee... Some days - more than once. 
If I do not (happens) - I may give it another day... (wait 24 hrs) but if that did not happened - then the following morning my high enema bag comes out (google high enema) and I get enema with plain filtered water.   No ifs no buts.   I learn the hard way (pun intended) that if I do not get good - complete  BM in 48 hrs - after that - it will hurt and bleed and hurt some more... and the gas... I am not going there.

So what do I do:
1. Water - we need water - you don't drink enough- your body will use the water and nothing will be left to allow the food moving inside.  That one is a must. Then you can add things.
2. magnesium . With every 500 mg of calcium I take I also take 250 mg of magnesium, and additionally I take 400-800 mg of mag oxide before bed. (less if that morning BM was too soft, more if it was hard or difficult)  Magnesium in your intestines is the magnet that pulls the water inside. 
3. Fat  - is the slider... lubricant. Things will not move easily if they are dry.. need fat to have good BM (IMO)
4. Fiber - no bulking - no volume- little in - little out.  But, warning: don't add too much fiber if you do not plan to drink water and or you are already have "hard" constipation.  We are talking about " you don't put dry sand into clogged pipes to clean them",  do you?  Dry fiber - with not enough lubrication and not enough water will be just that - dry sand... and it will turn into cement - if you let it sit inside you for too long.
 
After you do all of that... make sure you have a good plunger, (fiber = volume , things gets stuck, trust me), and ...I use wet wipes... The paper is OK.. but when the stuff comes out of you - it is not dry... and if we want to stay clean and not have infections - wipes (or bidet) is a great thing to have. I carry the wipes with me - for the time when my body decides to dump or throw up. (yea - it may happen). 

that all what you need to know about my ****!!!   

Let's just say Miralax (or generic) is a modern miracle.  I've stopped taking my stool softeners (yay, fewer pills!) and just mix a half dose a day into my morning protein shake.  However, the stool consistency is quite messy and it, well, lingers even with surface cleaning.  At that point I squirt a little water using an enema bottle and flush out the last little mushy bits. 

Ok that was gross, sorry.

 We have happy bottoms at our house because we use gentle baby wipes.....so important to feel clean and comfortable!

i'm about 2 months out and don't really have an issue. I take a stool softener once a week, but since i added back my green smoothies (so far just about 2 cups of spinach in my morning protein shake), i'm back to being regular. before surgery i would do about 4 cups of spinach or kale or collards, but i'm being conservative because i'm so recently post op.

I have also added in a bit of fat, not a ton, but my skin was getting SO dry and i noticed on most days i was getting between 0-5 grams of fat the whole day, that I just wasn't feeling healthy.