It's been over two months since I had my reversal and I am seeing improvement little, by little, by little,....(that's just my impatience with getting better). Now I measure my progress on a weekly basis rather than on a daily basis as I was in the beginning. Just makes more sense.
Compared to a month ago, my daily bms have been reduced by about half--thanks to the addition of metamucil three times a day to my diet. The metamucil makes it much easier to have a bm. The Metamucil wafers are handy to carry when I need to go out. I've only taken immodium once which stopped some major clustering I was having because of diarrhea. I bought some prune juice to use (in accordance with the MD Anderson program) but have not needed to trigger a bm, probably because I’m not taking much immodium. Prior to cancer and surgery, I’d never had problems with constipation or diarrhea and now my plumbing is returning to the way it was prior to cancer in this respect.
If I’d been aware of the MD Anderson Bowel Management program earlier I think it would have been a godsend during my first month after surgery and I might be further along in my recovery. I’m going to talk to my onc about the MDA BMP at my next appointment to see if he’s even aware of it. Maybe he had a good reason to make me wait a month before starting on Metamucil and advising me to avoid taking immodium.
My body has settled into a routine of needing to eliminate 3 times a day around breakfast, lunch and dinner times. I still have clustering and usually need to go 2-3 times before the job is done. On an average day I have to make 8-9 separate trips to the bathroom, but that's a lot better than the 15 times I was making in that first month after surgery.
I usually feel the urge to go the bathroom as soon as I start to eat, which is sometimes frustrating because it interrupts my meals. I've only eaten out at a restaurant a couple of times and sat pretty close to the washrooms. I'm hoping, in time, that this issue will resolve so that I can go out, sit through and enjoy a restaurant meal. I guess I could always try immodium?
I continue to experiment, adding new foods to my diet. Tried a tiny portion of some spicy thai food and was OK. I had a couple of bad days of gas pains after I decided to eat some coleslaw--won't be trying that again for a while. Mostly I can eat just about anything that I did before the reversal. I’m still staying away from too many beans. I am going to try spinach salad this week—that was one of the foods that would clean me out with diarrhea before all the cancer stuff. It will be interesting to see if it will have the same effect now.
There were a few times this past month when I was up through the night having to go several times to the bathroom that I did not experience in the first month. It really messed up my sleep patterns, and I was going on 5 hours of sleep a night for a few weeks. I told my doctor about my sleep problems and she put me on a med that has really helped--now I sleep through the night for a good solid 8 hours.
Lately one thing I can't figure out is why I'll have a day when I have 10 bms and then for the next couple of days I only have 3 bms, when I’ve eaten the same amount and the same foods almost every day. Anyone else have this experience?
Compared to my first month after reversal this past month, life is sort of returning to normal. I have been able to get out of the house for longer and longer periods of time and I am gaining confidence that I’ll be able to return to work soon. It would be a dream if I could get down to having 3 to 6 bms a day and maybe in time I will. That first month after reversal was difficult and I felt discouraged and doubtful that things would ever improve but thanks to the support of the kind people on board I made it through. Thanks again to all.
