WLS grad needs help

Hi; haven't been to this site before; it's weird to think I'm a grad! Anyway, I posted this one the main message board also. I am having some serious problems with diahrrea. It's been 12-14 days and I've lost around 10 lbs; I don't want to lose this much, I'm perfectly happy and healthy at 150 lbs; also all this diahrrea has really hit me hard and I feel pretty weak and poorly. I had assumed that I had gotten C Diff because I work in a hospital setting, but my stool labs came back negative for everything! I'm stumped! I thought one of you may have either heard of this problem, or had experienced it yourself. If you have, please write back or PM me; I'm at a loss, and need my life back! Thanks in advance, Sheila

Sheila,
I went through this after a week hospital stay after emergency gallbladder surgery.  They tested for everything including Cdiff then went back and retested for ecoli which came back positive.  I spent a week in the hospital with the ecoli when they decided to give me a cholesterol medication in powder form which immediately stopped the diarrhea.  After a week of Imodium and losing on the average of 2lbs a day the problem was solved with the cholesterol stuff and antibiotics.  Just a thought.

Thanks so much for your response! I'm going to talk to my doc again and see about what you experienced. Thanks for your input! Sheila

I find that simple carbs give me diarreah...especially if I get off track and start with the carbs...Then I get something similar to irritable bowel syndrome.  It got so bad I became magnesium deficient and that made things worse...

So I cut back out all carbs for 5 days...Started taking probiotics to get healthy flora back into my intestines and added magnesium to get my electrolytes back in order (Drinking lots of water too)  Worked like a charm...Never had bowel troubles since...or the muscle cramps that came with mag def.....That's been 6 months.

Sugar and simple carbs were my culprit...and then the mag deficiency from chronic diarreah....

Mild diarrhea from RNY or other WLS surgeries can happen to any patient. My major issue with diarrhea resulted from a trip to the ER. I cut my finger on my table saw, and went to the ER for stitches. I got CIPRO for any infection issues. About 2 days later I had severe diarrhea for about 10 days, although my diet had not changed at all. I consulted my regular doctor about some dizziness issues. I asked about the diarrhea, and he reviewed my latest history on the database, and noted my ER visit and the CIPRO. He explained that although CIPRO was a very good antibioitic, that my lower tract reacted to the fact that CIPRO kills off all bacteria in the body. The lower tract has good and bad bacter in a "balance", so that normal bowel habits occur. Upsetting this balance is what CIPRO had done. The diarrhea had stopped once I had run out of the 10 day supply given to me by the ER. So my docs diagnosis made complete sense to me. On a subsequent visit to the ER for another issue, I told the doc I was a RNY patient, and he changed the prescirbed antibioitic. BTW, my dizziness issues were due to low pulse, something I had all of my life. I ended up with a pacemaker implant, and that resolved any of those issues. DAVE

Thanks for replying. I got the diarrhea before I even started antibiotics. I rec'd antibiotics to try to stop the diarrhea. My PCP was thinking I had C Diff, so he started me on them empirically. Turns out I don't have C Diff, so anything else, so he wants me to have a colonoscopy to see why my diarrhea continues. 

There is a capsule you can get over the counter that helps with diahrea, FLORA Q, open the capsule and pour it in something and then eat it.  It puts good bile into your system and will help the lose waste stop.

I had a good bout of the squirts a couple of weeks ago and it included blood!  The stool was black so it wasn't roids or anything.  First thing I did was take immoidum to stop the diarrea.  I got a little dehydrated too but drank A LOT.  Getting caught up in fluids was tough.  After the squirts stopped, I ate greek yogurt like a mad man.  It was easy tolerated and has lots of protein.

It took a couple of days, but the blood cleared up too.  Near as I can figure out, I was working with the compost pile, got busy and forgot to wash my hands.  I think I got bacterialogical dysentary or some other food poisoning.

It was like a cold in as much as it took a week to get back to 100%