2 months post j-pouch - Lessons Learned

Today is the 2 month mark for having a j-pouch. Also, one year ago today, I had kidney cancer surgery. It was a week after that surgery that I started the UC flare from hell. After 3 months of no relief from any medication including biologics and prednisone, I opted for the 3 step J-pouch surgery. The 2 step was not an option because I was soooo sick/ weak (I lost 30 lbs in 3 months, which I didn’t have to lose).

So fast forward to today. I’ve been living with a J-Pouch for two months now and while Im far from being in a place to give a bunch of advice, I have learned a couple things that have worked for me:
1. The bidet is my best friend. I mounted one to my toilet at home and take a travel one to work. So helpful for the butt burn.
2. Take it easy on the calmoseptine - I went through a ton of this the first few weeks. I kept getting this insane itch, so I would just keep loading up the calmoseptine. Sometimes there was so much it was like I was sitting in a bucket of pink Crisco. It didn’t seem to matter how much I applied the itch was relentless. So one day, after a good hot shower, I decided not to apply it. Believe it or not the itching improved about 1000%. I think I had basically turned my backside into a Pietre dish science experiment with all that cream. I still use it, but only a little amount and only once or twice a day.
3. Metamucil, GasX & Beano. - Gas has been the toughest thing for me. It sometimes feels impossible to pass unless I doing some advance yoga moves. As much as I like laying on the floor of public bathrooms, I really wanted to figure this out. I tried Gas X and beano for the past couple of days and so far, it has really helped. The Metamucil also seems to thicken things up a bit and cut down the toilet trips.

So, I am really happy with how life it going. I’m cancer free, making 5-6 trips to the toilet a day. I’m Sleeping through the night (except when I have to pee) and I’m llooking forward to hitting the gym in a few more weeks (hitting it very softly).

I love your comment about bathroom floors! lol!

Good learnings you shared! I am using Calmoseptine almost very time I go, but I dry off pretty thoroughly first and apply a very small amount. So far I've avoided the Itch.

My surgeon had said that some folks find Metamucil to be gassy and that I should try Citracel. So I did that for a few weeks... and now I take a mixture of the two. When my can of citracel is gone, I will go just to metamucil; I think it works better.

At 3 months, my red banner day (a few days ago) was that I went only 6 times once. Usually it's 8-10 for me, and 1-2 times of those (usually 2) are during the night.
It sounds like you are doing great!

So great to hear you're all out living life. The butt burn and itch issue is the worst. There are so many good creams out there, but the bottom line as you learned is, the more cream, the less air, and the more bacteria/fungi can build up. I try to use everything sparingly and as needed, but with burn, sometimes you have to overdo it. My burn is 100x better than it was early on, but I ate some hot wings the other day, and man, those weren't fun on the way out.