short bowel problems after 16 surgeries - HELP
Hi - my husband got sick at 8 yrs old - diagnosed at 10 and is now 30. He has had numerous surgeries - ostomies, colectomy, short bowel recections.... He has been through countless regimens of medications to get his Crohn's under control and luckily has found something that has worked for the last several years (Humira injection 1/wk, Methotrexate injection 1/wk) to keep is Crohn's in remission. His main problem now is dealing with short bowel - he has about 7 feet of short bowel left and has terrible problems controlling his output.
He is almost constantly switching between antibiotics to keep bacterial overgrowths under control. He uses as much liquid/chewable meds as possible due to absorption issues. Antibiotics that he's tried are: Flagyl, Bactrim, Augmentum, Cipro, Amoxicillin, Xifaxin. He has also taken a break from the antibiotics and taken low doses of liquid opium (narcodic), which slows the bowels. He went through a period of several years where he got along great with alternating Cipro and Opium. He is now at the point where nothing seems to be working. Meds like Lomotil don't seem to make a difference. He tries to stick to a diet of thickening foods. He has also tried probiotics.
Does anyone that has short bowel have regimens that have worked???? We would appreciate any ideas - 20+ times a day in the bathroom is very stressful for my husband and our whole family - we just want to improve his quality of life!
Thanks
Hi - my husband got sick at 8 yrs old - diagnosed at 10 and is now 30. He has had numerous surgeries - ostomies, colectomy, short bowel recections.... He has been through countless regimens of medications to get his Crohn's under control and luckily has found something that has worked for the last several years (Humira injection 1/wk, Methotrexate injection 1/wk) to keep is Crohn's in remission. His main problem now is dealing with short bowel - he has about 7 feet of short bowel left and has terrible problems controlling his output.
He is almost constantly switching between antibiotics to keep bacterial overgrowths under control. He uses as much liquid/chewable meds as possible due to absorption issues. Antibiotics that he's tried are: Flagyl, Bactrim, Augmentum, Cipro, Amoxicillin, Xifaxin. He has also taken a break from the antibiotics and taken low doses of liquid opium (narcodic), which slows the bowels. He went through a period of several years where he got along great with alternating Cipro and Opium. He is now at the point where nothing seems to be working. Meds like Lomotil don't seem to make a difference. He tries to stick to a diet of thickening foods. He has also tried probiotics.
Does anyone that has short bowel have regimens that have worked???? We would appreciate any ideas - 20+ times a day in the bathroom is very stressful for my husband and our whole family - we just want to improve his quality of life!
Thanks
