BB, Good luck with the Sigmoidoscopy next week, I hope they sedate you, I wasn't so fortunate, here in the UK they don't sedate you as it's only a quick procedure, nevertheless it's very uncomfortable and mine didn't get completed b/c of severe pain!

Hey Hey
Day 6 – Search and Rescue operations were called off at 3:30am this morning when MIA poop was located, following a brief (HA! :D ) search. I was awoken at that terrible hour by some even more terrible stomach cramping. I hope my body isn’t going to make a habit of these nocturnal interruptions! Today has been pretty annoying on the BM front. I’m back to a semi-constant need to go, followed by not very much, but just enough to be irritating and require cleaning. No pain, just some discomfort during and for a very short while after BMs. Still feeling quite weary, but that is improving, and the lingering nausea has disappeared.
There’s a big difference between the way BMs felt before the op and the way they feel now ... Before the op, when I would feel the urge to go, I would get this enormously stretched sensation, even with very soft, narrow, pencil like BMs. It always felt as though it were on the verge of tearing ... Sometimes it would tear! Since the op, that feeling has been absent. I am still getting some thin, pencil like BMs, but mostly they are larger and only produce a generally raw feeling around the entire area, but that is lessening. I feel more relaxed now ... Like I don’t have to worry so much that it is about to tear! Hopefully that feeling will increase in the days, weeks and months to come.
BB,
Oh lord, -20C! I’ve never experienced temps that low. The lowest I’ve ever felt was around -7C ... And that was around 25 years ago! I’ve never seen that amount of snow either. I played in a couple of centimetres when I was a kid once, but never anything approaching a metre deep! Never seen a white Christmas either. It’s always at least 25C here at Christmas time.
Glad to hear that things are steady for you in the butt department at the moment ... Makes life a lot easier! Things were in a holding pattern for me immediately before the surgery.
I’ll join Steve in wishing you Good Luck for the Sigmoidoscopy next week. I wonder if you can ask to be sedated. I asked to be sedated for an MRI once. They agreed, but I had to pay for it!
:D
Steve,
That sounds awful! You'd think that they would be more accommodating and understanding of the levels of pain involved with these kinds of problems ... Sadly though, it doesn’t really come as that much of a surprise.

Yay! For improvement on Day 6 - it sounds like you are moving in the right direction. Even if you are being so rudely awakened by unthoughtful late guests! :)
Better late than never!
I can't imagine a green Christmas, but it occured to me that it must be that way in NZ! Oooo, +25C. Mmmm. Here it was -27 this AM. It's enough to make your sphincter spasm! I'll try to replace my avatar with a photo from around here.
I did manage to get a sedative scheduled for the sigmoidoscopy - just called today. I feel better about that now. Otherwise, when you describe the health care systems both in UK and NZ, it reminds me of Sweden's. You have to be lucky to get assigned a good and compassionate staff in the hospital.

Day 7 – No more night time surprises, but when I woke this morning I got that urgent feeling almost immediately. Horrible stomach cramps/pains were followed by what were actually two very comfortable and painless BMs. Unfortunately, the third was diarrhoea, and the associated stomach pains have continued all day. So I feel pretty wiped out! I don’t know what’s causing these cramps and now diarrhoea. Initially, I thought that it must be the Movicol, but I’m taking the same amount now as I was before the surgery and my diet is unchanged for the most part as well. Well, it’s only been a week I guess. Maybe it will just take a bit longer for things to settle down after all those drugs and the trauma of surgery ... Hope so! I’m not really sure if I should start to reduce the Movicol or just hold fire for a while.
I suppose the main thing is that everything seems to be healing and for the first time in a long time, I don’t feel that I’m going to tear back there every single time I go #2.
I had my one week post-op appointment with my CRS today. She hustled me in the door, had a look, said it was all healing well, I blathered nonsense for about three minutes , and then she hustled me back out again. I guess the rest is up to me and my sphincter!
Bumbutt – I hope the sigmoidoscopy goes well! Glad you were able to get sedation!

Hrm I think you could probably try cutting down on the Miralax slightly if you think it would help. I've found that reduced doses can be noticeable "poop hardness-wise" in the long term, but don't make as much difference in turd solidity as one might think in the short term, say over a day or two ... but the reduction might be enough to minimize stomach irritation.
Either that or keep the Miralax dose the same but try altering your diet slightly. I'm a bit of a paranoid type so this latter one is probably the route I'd chose hahaha. In fact I did something like that for a bit after surgery, because my turds also fluctuated wildly between the Amazon River and the Sahara Desert. Eventually things stabilized but it took a while, and for a little bit I was eating potato chips to try to firm things up more. I think Steve might've had a similar experience post op as well.

Hmmm - diarrhea, not nice. IMHO, maybe you should give your stomach another day to adjust, seeing as it seems to be doing different things, and keep your movicol dose steady. In the lesser of two evils, maybe a hard stool would be worse. Can you just eat a little more fiber today - a kiwi perhaps?! :D They're high in fiber, yummy, and local for you(!) - though I'm sometimes a little suspicious of all those little black seeds inside... however, they haven't seem to have hurt me. Well, if not kiwi, then some something easy on your stomach that has some fiber - a smoothie maybe?
I find I am pretty sensitive to the amount of movicol that I take (at least it seems that way to my hypervigilant mind!). If I take 3t (probably 9.5g), I go to the bathroom at least 2 maybe 3 times a day. If I take only 2t the stool is noticeably harder. I carefully measure out 2.5t. Maybe the balance between the body and how it reacts with the movicol is sensitive.
Just guessing, as usual...
On second thought, that you had stomach cramps all day sounds like a bit much... maybe it is still a reaction from the surgery and the anxiety of it? Your system is maybe just going up and down and trying to regain balance? What are you eating?
Good that the doctor says you are healing though - even though they bustled you in and out. Good news!

oh, just saw NG posted now... just squeezed in before me!

Yes I have to be really careful with Miralax too...it's such a fine line between soft and diarrhea with that stuff. I can only have 1 teaspoon a day...if things get a little too firm then I'll take 2 teaspoons but the next day back down to 1 teaspoon. It does seem to have a residual effect.
Well cramps and diarrhea do suck, but it's better than a rock hard monster turd! Fiber supplements can help settle the diarrhea, at least for me they do.
Sounds like you're doing so much better though--I totally know what you mean about the tearing/stretching feeling every time you have a BM. I have that feeling every time I have to go too...it takes awhile to go because the dumb sphincter doesn't want to let it pass by...it's like giving birth. But I'm so glad for you that that feeling is going away! Things can only get better!

Day 8 - Stupid body! I woke up to some increased soreness and then started the day with a hard BM!
For @#&^* sake, what does a sphinctersaurus have to do? I decided to take everyone's advice yesterday and not reduce the Movicol . Good thing I didn't too! I hate to think what would have happened! The BM hurt, and there seems to be some damage or perhaps it's the beginning of an infection ... I don't know. It was already sore when I woke up so … Maybe I injured it in my sleep? Wouldn't be the first time! Sometimes I wonder what the hell goes on while my conscious brain is asleep. I had an incident a couple of weeks ago where I got up, put a cloth in the microwave and turned it on ... I'm not sure how long it was in there ... long enough to be on fire when the smoke was noticed! I don't remember any of it. It's a complete blank! I used to sleep-walk as a kid, but as I got older it stopped.
I’m bummed because I had pretty much no pain anymore, but now it's stinging and sore. I've had a look and the problem area seems to be around the skin tag site. It looks angry and there's a lot of redness that wasn't there before. I really hope it isn't becoming infected! WORRY ... WORRY ... WORRY! I can handle a step backwards, as long as it isn't infected.
And it's the weekend too of course, so it'll be impossible to get anyone on the phone.

Sorry to be such a drag guys. This AF thing really is an up and down affair!

By the way ... Thanks for all the advice and support guys. It really is a good thing that I didn't reduce the Movicol!
:D

hi sphinctersaurus,
i hope you are chilling and not illin'!
so you are already in the weekend....over here it is just early weee Friday morning!
as much as i would also worry and fear an infection (which i think i am just getting over myself!), you may be doing the following already:
1. make sure to take your hot (as hot as you can stand it) baths for 20 minutes or so with epsom salts or even regular salt - i haven't tried the regular salt version though but i hear that saline baths - which are just salt and water are very good for healing wounds.
2. i bought some triple antibiotic ointment and started to put that on about three days ago and well, no more green/brown discharge for me - i developed this green/brown discharge on monday/tuesday - after utilizing aloe vera fresh plant and then tues nite/wed/thursday religiously put on the triple antibiotic ointment. big difference. my gauzes are clean. went back to soaking big time on monday night.
the area of my skin tag incision was the area affected as i could tell there was puffiness and tenderness that i did not like.
today had my primary physician take a peek (and he stretched me open!) and he couldn't see sign of infection so i think i am good. he also didn't think prescribing a "pill" antibiotic was necessary.
i will keep my progress with hot baths, antibiotic ointment through the next week until my CRS gets back at the end of the month.
as of today, the puffiness and tenderness is all gone.
go figure!
try also taking anti-inflammatory meds. i took some acetomenaphine the last few days.
phew. i hope this is it.
stay on top of it!