j-pouch surgery done

My experience was that the bloating was purely a post-surgical phenomenon; four months out, I have none of it. You will go a lot at first, although I didn't have much urgency (though I had my surgery done in two steps instead of one, so it may not compare). I find that Metamucil and Imodium slow down my gut a lot, so my #1 tip is to start experimenting with them as soon as your surgeon clears you to do it. The difference, especially at the beginning, was very dramatic. I went from hating life to feeling almost completely normal in about 12 hours.

What are you doing now for the butt burn? There's a list of remedies as long as your arm, but I don't want to waste your time with things you've already tried!

I have been really satisfied with the results of the surgery so far, and hope you will be too!

I had my j-pouch created and ileostomy reversal in one surgery about 4 weeks ago. I was in the hospital for two weeks, but when I got home, everything was fine until the butt burn kicked in about two weeks ago. It was very severe and I was miserable the whole time hoping it would eventually go away. Here's what I found helpful and cured it in 48 hours.

I began following the BRAT diet...eating only Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast. Also, I switched to only drinking water (nothing else) and lots of it which seems counter intuitive (about 2 liters a day). The food almost instantly bulks up your output, the water keeps you hydrated.

I also got those Metamucil cinnamon wafers, but only ate 1 in the evening before going to bed and one when I woke up. This also seemed to bulk things up and stop the relentless acid flow in about 6 hours.

This may sound funny, but I've read this on other sites as well, but if you have lots of butt crack hair, shave it off. This reduces irritation because the hair seemed to retain the acid, no matter how well you wipe, even using the baby wipes.

Also, I continued to just take hot baths to sooth my bottom after a BM. I avoided creams because they didn't seem to work for me.

I was miserable all last week, taking baths seemed to be the only solution, and I was taking about 10 to 15 a day and about 5 or 6 at night...so when I did what I mentioned above. Today (48 hours after doing just what I mentioned above), was the first day where I was able to sleep almost 17 hours in a row, with 3 short night time bathroom trips without any burning and without taking baths, I feel much better now. I'll start weaning off the BRAT diet and see what happens.

I eventually want to try to control the butt burn with as little medicines as possible. The wafers seem like a good start, but I'll also try controlling it with diet, since I think that is a larger cause of butt burn. I also know in a few months, my pouch should start functioning and hopefully I'll be able to eat just about anything and get off the wafers as well. But at least I know how to stop butt burn quickly if it happens again.

Foods that I avoid currently are tomato sauce in pasta, lemonade, and orange juice.

Hope this helps others out there going through what I am.

I totally agree with GISGuy, baths seemed to be the only thing that really helped me, however I also used the Calmoseptine to avoid irritation. Diet is HUGE when it comes to butt burn, you really have to slowly introduce foods outside of the low residue diet. Once the forbidden food is through, you finally feel relief. The spicier, acidic foods would make me feel like I was passing acid It does get better with time, 15+ a day sounds normal for the beginning and like Sue said look for improvements at slow stages.