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Is it only the people with j-pouches and stomas who have these kinds of thoughts?

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Posted 10/27/2012 7:46 PM (GMT 0)
I just got back from dinner with a friend around the corner at an Indian restaurant. I keep imagining the Papadam, the rice, the lamb, the yoghurt, the sweet tamarind sauce, onions, green pepper, all the spices and the lassi, getting processed to a coarse mush in my stomache and then slowly entering my small intestine (I forgot where the esophasus is in the whole picture), getting processed further and being transformed into a finer mush until it achieves some kind of final stage, exits my small intestine and fills my j-pouch, where it will wake me up twice in the middle of the night, I'm geussing first around 2:50 and then around 6.
Posted 10/27/2012 8:26 PM (GMT 0)
Ever since I had neon red output from a Cherry Coke Slushee, I do stop and think about what color the output will be. I stay away from anything with artificial colors now. There is a neon green Lemon-Lime Slushee. It makes me laugh when I look at the machine. I wonder if my output would glow in the dark? :)
Posted 10/27/2012 9:33 PM (GMT 0)
In Paris you can order Menthe a l'eau, a glass of plain water with about 3 inches of nuclear-green syrup at the bottom. The results gave me a shock.
If anyone in my life had any idea of the intensity of my interest in looking at my output, and how I make note of amount, anything recognizable, size and shape etc., I am pretty sure they would start to avoid me. Maybe everyone does that and I just don't know it.
Posted 10/27/2012 10:13 PM (GMT 0)
LOL, I have thought of these things too.  I went out to dinner with friends a few weeks ago and ate a very varied meal.  At one point I wondered how and if it would be able to exit.  It was colorful output to say the least!  Funny how I never thought of any of this stuff before - after all, I couldn't eat over half the stuff I eat now! 
Posted 10/27/2012 10:59 PM (GMT 0)
Try some cooked fresh beets. Not pickled. Next time you empty you will swear you are bleeding to death.

Dan
Posted 10/27/2012 11:37 PM (GMT 0)
Oh Dan that's hilarious!!!! I will know to not freak out if I eat beets!!!!
Posted 10/27/2012 11:49 PM (GMT 0)
But do you think it comes to a point where you don#t think about your poo any more than you did before you became ill?
Posted 10/27/2012 11:54 PM (GMT 0)
Personally B'Dereh, I think because I was sick for so long and always worried about what I put in my mouth, I will always think about all that, waste, pain, hydration......I don't know if that ever goes away.

Perhaps it will lessen but I don't think it will go away. As I type this my husband is munching on popcorn and that's enough to send shivers through my intestines!!!!
Posted 10/28/2012 12:26 AM (GMT 0)
Haha, I always chuckle when I eat a bunch of Red Vines and have bright red output. The first time it happened I at first I thought I was bleeding, but realized pretty quickly it was the red licorice.

I was always preoccupied with my food and how it would digest as well as the consistency of my BM's since I had UC - it's hilarious how excited one can get over a formed stool, LOL.

But now I do sort of picture it going through my digestive system, and I am much more interested in the color and detail of my output... like how applesauce looks *exactly* the same coming out as it did going in - even the specks of cinnamon. Or one time what came out looked so bizarre I could not for the life of me figure out what it was from.

I wonder if and how that fascination will change after my take-down.
Posted 10/28/2012 1:30 AM (GMT 0)
Right now, I just had crab pasta alfredo. I haven't had alfredo in years! I'm wondering what the output is going to be like and smell like. I have to admit that I had trouble eating certain foods in the beginning because the output smell would remind me too much of the smell of the food! I couldn't even look at eggs and tomato sauces/soups. I think I'm still avoiding fish for that reason.

Since we are talking about poop specifics, I have question for people. Sometimes I will look at my bag and think "this is going to be a tough clean" - the poo looks a bit more solid than applesauce (I have an end ileo). But, then the poop just slides right out barely leaving any residue! Other times, I will be right. The poo will stick to the sides and everywhere! Making the tail tough to clean.

Does anybody know what causes one to occur versus the other? Fat content? Hydration?

I admit that I was fascinated about the lettuce leaves I found the other day in my output (my first time eating lettuce with an ileo! Wondering if that was ok that they were still formed. I also like to make a spinach, avocado, pineapple, and almond milk smoothie on occasion. Wohoo that made some interesting looking output - very bright green.
Posted 10/28/2012 3:08 AM (GMT 0)
Red velvet cake ice cream is CRAZY coming out! It does the thick cakey thing, but the bright red thing also. It was nuts, and it stayed that way for the whole day. Well actually two days cause I ate it two days, lol. I think applesauce and bananas and pizza are odd because they triple in volume. And lettuce is annoying cause it won't flush! Ham and blue food coloring smell awful!
I have yet to figure out what makes stuff the way it is when it comes out.
Posted 10/28/2012 12:20 PM (GMT 0)
ActiveUC: I think when it slides right out it has less fat, because fat made it cling to the bag. I remember that affect but not what I ate before. At some point when I had the loop stoma, I started eating psylllium because the too-liquidy output was making me fear dehydration. The psyllium created a gel-like consistency and just slid out. So you may have been eating some kind of good fiber.
The lettuces is never going to get process in the small intestine. I love eating salad but noticed that when I do, my ouput is broken up and now that I have a jpouch, I do "like" to have a normal-looking, one-piece of output.
OK, from what I read here, I am not the only one examining and thinking about what comes out after what I ate.
Indian food - is a bit spicy on the way out and I needed to use calmoseptine this morning. Good thing was, it only woke me up once at about 6 or 6:30 this morning. I felt so full when I got home last night that I had imagined my jpouch filling up again and again throughout the night. It being Sunday, I could go back to sleep, lovely. Even had a very nice dream.
Posted 10/28/2012 1:07 PM (GMT 0)
I think about this sort of thing all the time. I had my one-year annivesary of step one recently, and I wondered if I will ever go through a day without thinking about these surgeries/my jpouch/the state of my poop. Like Larasmom, I think that because literally half of my life until surgery was spent with UC, it's just force of habit to think about poop now. I just don't remember what it was like before I was diagnosed.

I do, however, sort of like when I can identify food in the toilet- it helps me to figure out my transit time with different items! Not that it really matters too much, but I like to know what to expect sometimes, like if I'm eating out.

I think as long as its not obsessive, it's probably not a big deal to think about these things- to not think about them at all (especially so soon since surgery) would be a little odd, I think.
Posted 10/28/2012 2:05 PM (GMT 0)
Good Morning!

I love this topic! Yes, I have done ALL of the above. I have always been fascinated (and I am such a nice and lovely person!) with my waste, and always will. I am a year and a half out from a permanent ileostomy. I eat, drink, and am merry about all of it. I struggled many years with UC, and had I known how good life could be, I would have done this 5 years ago.

Ok, here's my funny waste story. Do you all know what Goldschlagger is? It's a cinnamon, hot, delicious liqueur. It has flecks of gold in it. Well, you know the rest of my story!! I have golden effluent!! So beautiful to see that gold mixed in!!

Love to all,and Happy Sunday!!

Mollie
Posted 10/28/2012 2:39 PM (GMT 0)
I thought Goldschläger was too kitchy to drink, and it scared me because I thought about those gold flecks going through my body - and that was before I had UC. Maybe I'll ask my surgeon if he thinks it would be ok going through a J-pouch, I imagine he'll laugh his head off.
I just googled Goldschläger and found a cocktail called "rich, dead ****". Oh my.
Posted 10/28/2012 2:40 PM (GMT 0)
Add another word to what's not allowed on this site: it is spelled like this:
N
a
z
i
Posted 10/30/2012 8:54 AM (GMT 0)
A bit of childish delight this moring:
Yesterday late afternoon I had a yoghurt with psyllium, went back to work and basicall forgot to eat before going out to a lecture. At 10 pm I came out of the lecture reeling with hunger and went to a Viet Namese place where I had a big plate of fried rice noodles with tofu, and some ginger tea. I went to sleep around 12, fearing the worst series of wake-ups. But instead, I slept solidly through the night, not waking til 7:30 with only a light feeling that I needed to go. What was so much fun (?!) is that I emptied my jpouch in one, huge, long piece that exited so smoothly. I have been a grown-up for a long time now so someone please tell me why I think this is so great?
Posted 10/30/2012 11:12 AM (GMT 0)
LOL!! Exactly what I was saying earlier B'Dereh. How excited we can get over a lovely bowel movement! No one else but us would understand. ;-)
Posted 10/30/2012 12:27 PM (GMT 0)
     Actually, I really don't think about the processing..lol.  I do remember the first time they gave me blueberry water ice after my operation.  The surgical resident said, "Oh, I see you ate blueberry water ice!"  I didn't realize how fast the transit time could be.  It may differ amongst all of us, but I always had a very fast transit time, even when I had my colon.  Food just zips down my esophagus, through my stomach, and out my small intestine.  It's a wonder I gain any weight, but I have rolleyes .

     My surgeon said I could eat anything but just to chew very thoroughly.  I have followed his advice, and so far, so good smilewinkgrin .

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