Hello everyone, I'm now approaching 8 months post ileostomy takedown. Thinking back on the last 14months, I had two open surgeries (8hours and 3 hours) and two hospital stays (11 days and 4 days). I'm in my early 50's and I guess I'm a little surprised how long it's taking me to get back to normal f...

Sorry to hear it's been so rough for you Dennis. How's your diet? Do eat high fiber foods like rice, etc? Are you taking a fiber supplement like Imodium? When you do go are you stools formed at all? Do you have control when you need to go? Are you exercising regularly? Apologies for all the question...

Thought I'd drop in with another update. I'm just over 4 months out from reversal surgery now. I still go upwards of 10x a day but the stool is typically pretty well formed. Boozing does indeed make things pretty watery for some time the next day. My control keeps improving and I don't even think to...

Hi fellow colon issue sufferers. I am almost 13 weeks post surgery and I can report that my small intestine is continuing to take on more characteristics of my large intestine. I take Metamucil 3x a day and imodium 2x a day. But what comes out of my butt is much better than what went into the my bag...

Hey Riki, sorry the reversal didn't work out for you. When I had my 7 hour bout with diarrhea, my ass felt like it was literally on fire, definitely couldn't live like that constantly. I also wouldn't want to worry about pooping myself or wearing diapers all the time. It seems like you found a solut...

Hello everyone. It's about 5 weeks from last post and 10 weeks from surgery. Other than one weird 7 hour diarrhea fest about a week ago, the consistency of my stools have improved and remained consistent. Out of 5 I'd say around a 3.5 or 4. I still go a lot, like 10x a day, but that's more for my co...

Congrats bomberbob! I too had cancer in '91 (at 21) and carry the gene (Lynch syndrome). We had my kids tested when they hit 20 and I passed it on to one of them. My first surgery in '91 the doc took out the part of the colon with the tumor and resected the rest. Had 2x yearly colonoscopies for 5 ye...

My first surgery to remove was colon was long and complicated. My doc had to do it open because of all the scar tissue I had around my colon and abdomen due to my first surgery 30+ years ago. It took around 9 hours and I was in the hospital for 11 days. Very very unpleasant. Painful and I had to hav...

What kind of scar tissue and where? I had a ton in my abdomen from my earlier surgery that my doc had to clean out.

I appreciate the replies and the super helpful suggestion. I'm encouraged that after 4 weeks out I'm significantly improved from weeks 1 and 2. I'd like to rely on Metamucil and Imodium less but I'll do what I need to do until my small bowel hopefully learns some new tricks. I'll pop in here from ti...

Had colon cancer at 21 and just had my large intestine removed at 53. I see your 10 scopes and raise you 30.

I’ve had 40 colonoscopies over the years. Was going 2x per year the first 3 years from my initial surgery.

That’s a lot of preps...

Hi. I've read the boards a good bit as I prepared for, and now live with, the removal of large intestine 8 months ago and the takedown of my ileostomy 4 weeks ago. A little about me first. I'm an early 50's dude who first had rectal cancer when I was 21. I was extremely lucky and the tumor that even...