ibs-d 5yrs post gb removal?

Calling Keriamon! She's the one with the best info on tackling BSD with welchol. No doubt she'll be along soon with some words of wisdom.

Since you've been regular for so long, it does seem a bit odd that you'd suddenly have problems. Are your stools light/yellowish in color and do they burn? If not, then that's a pretty good indicator that you're having something other than a bile problem (Lord knows there are enough cases of Salmonella and E. coli going around). If you have yellow, burning poop, then yep, you're having a bile problem. If the calcium alone isn't enough, then definitely try the Welchol. That's what helps me and many others.

Have you had problems with acid reflux (GERD)? My G.I.'s N.P. told me that sometimes the bile goes up, and sometimes it goes down. In most people, it has a predictable pattern of always up or always down, but your body can change over time, and if you've been having bile reflux up, it may have just started refluxing down (D).

Now, if you're not having bile poop, then you may just have a stomach bug that's gotten stuck in there. That's how I tell the difference between post-gall bladder problems and other types of bowel problems: bile content. Try some Activia yogurt once or twice a day and see if that helps. If so, keep it up for 3-4 weeks, and you should be right as rain again. If you can't tolerate yogurt, then try a probiotic, like Culturelle or Digestive Advantage.

No, it's okay to take calcium and yogurt. One, the yogurt has calcium in it anyways, and can help on that level, as well as the probiotic level. Secondly, since this isn't a bile problem, you shouldn't have to stay on the yogurt and calcium forever anyways, so it really doesn't matter which one helps more. You may even find that the probiotics help your acid reflux. It all depends on if it's bile that you're refluxing or if there are bad bacteria in there (or just an imbalance) that's setting off your stomach acids. The last bout of trouble I had, after taking an antibiotic, gave me some heart burn. That's mostly gone away now, though. Of course, calcium can help cut the acid and the irritation caused by the acid in your stomach and esohpagus (yogurt being better for this so high up than the pill). My mother has always treated her reflux with milk. There's evidence now that the fat in the milk makes you make more acid, but I think her acid is bile, not stomach acid, and so that may be why she feels better than most people after having a glass of milk or a milkshake. At any rate, the yogurt should have enough benefits to squelch any extra acid it may (or may not) produce.

Try the yogurt once or twice a day and start out with one calcium pill a day and see what that does. If it doesn't do enough, up your calcium pill to two or three a day and get two yogurts a day. If you start getting constipated, cut out the calcium and just stick with one or two yogurts a day. Do that until you've been normal for three weeks, then go off everything and see what happens (if anything).