Amitriptyline to treat diarrhea

I had bowel resection surgery two years ago. They removed most of my colon and 18" of small bowel. Since surgery, I have severe diarrhea. The colon absorbs water so without the colon, there is nothing to absorb the water which results in diarrhea. I've tried imodium, questran, keopectate etc. My doc has recently prescribed the anti-depressant Amitriptyline. I'm told one of the side affects is constipation so it should help to bulk up my stool. I've been very reluctant to try this new med as I don't want to feel out of it, groggy etc. Is anyone taking this med and has it helped with diarrhea? My doc also prescribed codiene which is an addictive drug? I'm told it should also help with the diarrhea. I haven't tried either drug yet and am hoping to get some feedback before I decide. My doc says to try the amitriptyline first and see how that goes. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Sorry to hijack your thread gmd...but kemperca I read in your sig line that you were DX with crohn's and colitis, I have crohn's colitis which is actually crohn's affecting the colon (where ulcerative colitis typically hangs out) but it's still crohn's and so many CDers get confused when their docs throw the word "colitis" out there leaving the patient to think they have both UC and CD when really it's their CD affecting their colon and not UC...it's estimated that 2% of patients suffer with both UC and CD which is fairly low.

gmd, I hope you find relief and that the Amitriptyline does the trick for you.

:)