dehydration/saunas/hot southern states

I was just wondering if once you have a jpouch if you can still do things that result in heavy perspiration? Saunas, Jacuzzis, etc.

I am a heavy sweater. I used to live in Austin and plan to move back one day, but hope I could still deal with the heat (it's been 105 lately and it's not unusual for them to get months of 100+ degree weather).

I hear so much about dehydration and wondering to what extent you need to hydrate in various conditions? My friend who just had step 1 said she constantly has her Gatorade and is just chugging all day. This seems like a pain in the butt if I'm just going to constantly be peeing. I get staying hydrated but is it to that extreme? Constantly carrying around liquids and always drinking?

I just got done doing the whole tourist thing in Washington DC this past week and it was hotter than hell there. We walked all day long doing the museums and memorials, ect. I was fine. I just made sure I had water with me at all times. I live in NJ and it gets pretty hot here in the summer. We have a lot of humidity.....ick.

I was in a hot tub not to long ago. No issues with that either. As long as you stick to the time limit of 15 or 20 minutes, you are fine. And that goes for coloned people too.

Thanks all. Sounds like it's not as bad as I thought. I also heard that over time your pouch adapts a little bit to help with hydration. Is this true?

I just don't want to have to avoid living/travelling to hot temperature environments. And I got a bit freaked since dehydration is what recently landed me in the ER (from the colonoscopy prep combined with glaring badly).

For what it's worth I haven't had any dehydration issues, even in the summer heat, with my relatively high output loop ostomy. I take some Imodium each day to thicken things up a bit and even on days when it seems like the Imodium is doing nothing and I see tons of liquid (which honestly is most days), I've still been OK. Some people do need to take Imodium on a regular basis with their j-pouch (some people need even more, like Lomotil or Tincture of Opium) but ultimately you find the balance that works for you and your lifestyle. You can even run a marathon with a j-pouch, you just have to plan your hydration strategy ahead of time.

The only time I've been dehydrated this year was with my end ileostomy, which was a DREAM (thick output like soft formed stools, emptied the bag 4-5 times per day, etc), but I got viral gastroenteritis and was outputting pure liquid for three days straight AND started vomiting before I realized I could take Imodium. My GI's office was able to give me a bag of IV hydration and she gave me a lecture about taking Imodium when needed. No problems since.