Hi all,
I had my 6 week checkup with my surgeon today; he says I'm completely healed and doing well. I told him about the multiple bms everyday(about 20), and he said that's part of the game for now, but if I can take lomotil to slow them down (which I can), then just play around a little with the lomotil and try to make it work so I can leave the house, etc. I've had more luck the last couple days, so it is definitely getting better. He thinks in another 6 weeks I'll notice even more improvement. He's not doing any scopes, etc until July unless I have problems, because if I take fiber, the movements aren't as loose and they do come out, it's just more difficult. He said since I can pass formed stool, I most likely don't have any blockages, etc. I was concerned because if I take too much fiber, it's hard to get bm's out, but eventually I go, it just takes awhile. He just said I may not need to take much fiber.
He asked me how much lomotil I have to take to make things slow down or stop. I told him one lomotil will definitely slow things almost completely for several hours, and he said that if that's the case, he's almost sure I have some motility problems with the small intestine as well. He said that when he performs a total colectomy on patients who have cancer but no problem with colon inertia, they often have horrible diarrhea problems and often have to take 6-8 tablets at a time to help them. I hope the small intestine doesn't later cause more problems, but for now, I'm just thankful the lomotil is working.
One funny thing-- it seems like everytime I've been to the surgeon lately he's wanted to look at my rear end, so today I was lying on the table with one of those paper sheets over my bottom area, the doctor asked me to pull my pants down so he could see and feel my abdomen. He said it looked great, was healed, etc, so I turned over to show him my rear end and he and his nurse started laughing and said he didn't need to see my rear end today! I was so embarrassed and said "Oh, I just thought you wanted to look at my rear, you always do", he said "next time I won't disappoint you, I'll even do a scope on you"!
Anyway, that's where I am. Today has been a good day, only have gone 3 times so maybe things are slowing down.....just hope things don't slow down too much!!!
Hope everyone else is doing well,
Janie