HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

More diarrhea after a resection ?

Support Forums
>
Crohn's Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 9/12/2013 1:15 AM (GMT 0)
My son had a resection in Feb 2013. Before surgery he was so sick. Fevers, chills, cramping, fatigue, joint pain... The works. During the course of his disease he would have about 5-7 or so bowel movements a day. Lots of diarrhea but that was not the main complaint.

He had 60% of his colon removed. The remaining 40% is still diseased but mildly. He had a portion of his terminal ileum removed, appendix, and the surgeon repaired a fistula between the duodenum and Colon. The fistula was in a place that did not show up on any tests. We were lucky the surgeon found it.

It took my son a few weeks to feel better from the surgery. His stool was formed and we thought we were in the clear. Then the diarrhea started. It's worse now then it ever was before. While he doesn't have all the symptoms that he did before surgery the trips to the bathroom are about 10 on a good day.

He is on Cimzia, Lialda, prednisone. We are trying to taper his prednisone. He also takes the usual, probiotics, vit D, aloe drinks,etc.

Why would he have so much diarrhea now ??? They were suppose to be better not worse.
Posted 9/12/2013 11:59 AM (GMT 0)
Bandit01,
Call the GI's office tell them what he is experiencing, ask about
Cholestyramine for oral Suspension USP Powder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholestyramine

This may help, with less colon there is a lesser ability to absorb liquid that results in the diarrhea.

I am just trying the stuff myself now. search on this site about Cholestyramine, I am starting slow from what I have read of what others have said. Resection in May for me.

I hope you find some resolution to your son's symptoms.

T
Posted 9/12/2013 11:31 PM (GMT 0)
It is said that if all or any part of the ileum is removed, then there is a strong possibility of bile acid diarrhea afterward. Normally the bile would be reabsorbed, but instead it gets dumped into the large intestine, irritates it, and causes the diarrhea. This does not happen to every one with resections but it happens to a few of us. I had a resection and this is what happened to me. Right now, I don't even tolerate cholestryamine well because of a long stricture in my bowel. Can't win.  Your son needs to have a doctor determine, the cause of his diarrhea?  Maybe it isn't bile acid diarrhea, maybe there is another cause.

Post Edited (dorri) : 9/12/2013 5:34:31 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 9/20/2013 2:28 PM (GMT 0)
This happens when there is not as much intestine for the food/stool to go though. For lack of a better term - "it goes straight though you". The organs to digest things are not there to do their job. I had a resection and it was a few years before the diarrhea stopped.
Posted 9/24/2013 4:18 PM (GMT 0)
Cholestyramine for oral Suspension USP Powder

Miracle drug! I had 6 ft. of intestines removed and was always in the bathroom. My doctor gave me this and no more bowel movements for 12 hrs at least. I could once again go places without plotting the course with bathrooms in mind.
I do go 4 or 5 times first thing in the morning before I take it. I tend to get a tummy ache if I don't get rid of some of it.
Posted 9/26/2013 4:44 AM (GMT 0)
Questran, or the many other names for cholestyramine is helpful if there is no stricture or obstruction. If there is a stricture, than one has to be very careful taking this medication, if at all.
Posted 9/26/2013 9:32 AM (GMT 0)
Dorri,

Why is that ?
Posted 9/26/2013 9:32 AM (GMT 0)
Dorri,

Why is that ?
Posted 9/26/2013 3:13 PM (GMT 0)
Because this product is capable of causing constipation, it may cause problems if there are strictures (bowel narrowing) or obstructions involved. Even the information slip mentions this. If your son does not have either, than it won't be a concern for him, in fact it should even be helpful.

Post Edited (dorri) : 9/26/2013 9:26:03 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 9/30/2013 4:39 AM (GMT 0)
I just had an appointment with my GI doc after having a resection in August and was told that it would take AT LEAST 6 months to start seeing any difference and often times even longer then that. If they removed his ileo cecal valve he may be suffering from the bile diarrhea. I understand how awful it is that every time you eat or drink something or even think about eating and drinking, it's off to the bathroom.
Posted 9/30/2013 1:21 PM (GMT 0)
With this bile acid diarrhea, how is it that some have the problem after surgery, while others don't. I can't understand that. Could it be that they had less taken out?
Posted 9/30/2013 6:39 PM (GMT 0)
I'm sorry your son's dealing with this. It just seems to add insult to injury. My diarrhea did improve over the post-op months and wasn't as bad as at first.

My surgeons told me just prior to surgery that I would have chronic diarrhea from the partial colon removal (and I didn't have nearly as much removed as your son). I'm not sure why your son's doctors didn't address this with him, but frankly mine waited to tell me this right before they wheeled me back to the operating room.

I agree with the above posters about his probable need for Questran. I've managed without it but I may one day have to try it, but I do have a stricture at the anastomosis site so that makes me at risk for an obstruction like Dorri spoke of.

Dorri, since the colon's job is to reabsorb the water from the small intestine's output, it would make sense that the more colon that's removed, the greater the diarrhea. Someone above mentioned the ileo-cecal valve removal would make things worse since it wouldn't be there to regulate the flow from the small intestine.

I had 1/2 the rectum up to the left side of the transverse colon removed (roughly 1/3 of the last part of the colon) but I still have bile salts diarrhea. I think in my case it's the disease involvement at the ileum coupled with my no longer having a gall bladder that causes me to have this type of diarrhea.
Posted 9/30/2013 8:27 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for sharing JaSanne. I heard this after my surgery. I had 22 cm's of illeum and 6 cm's of secum removed. Both my GI and my surgeon failed to mention that I might have diarrhea after it. While there was no further crohn's pain involved soon after the surgery the diarrhea persisted and put a damper on my life for quite a while because I didn't know this, I just thought the surgery stirred things up and it would get better. When l complained to my GI later, he prescribed Questran, but I already had the CD back and some scar tissue in the surgical site, and felt a lot of pressure and bloat after taking it, so I would take it only when I needed to stop the diarrhea because of some important occassion or appointment. I still do this. I take it when it's urgent, but last week, I ended up with 3 days of side pain after taking it, the narrowing is getting worse.

A good binder are nuts, walnuts, cashews etc...but watch those as closely as the questran because they constipate, so eat very few of them and monitor how they work for you? For me having diarrhea with strictures present is probably a good thing because how else would it come out with this blockage?
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply