Follow-up on quiting the nicorette gum & pouchitis

[Guest guest]

Hi all,Well I quit the nicorette gum yesterday (about 24 hours ago). In fact, I've quit all gum since it bad for my j-pouch (chewing gum introduces air into the GI tract and causes lots of gas and can cause a blockage and increased diarrhea). I'm using the nicorette patch, so I'm not nicotine free yet. Wish me luck, because this is going to take EVERYTHING I have to do and be successful. I know it's a compliance issue (both the hepatologist & GI doc have told me to quit the gum & nicotine), so it has to be done.Also, as to the pouchitis, I had a scope yesterday, and the pouch looked good. No sign of pouchitis. Yet I'm having watery stools and bad leaks at night that require changing/washing not only the sheets but the mattress pad. And this happens even though I went back to wearing Depend at night. Sorry for going into this detail, but the folks in this group seem to be able to handle hearing all the details, while not many other people can hear it. Anyway, the doctor and others have said to quit all added sugars and chocolate to help control this. I've decided I'll quite the nicorette for a few days before I quit the sugars and chocolates. It's just not realistic to me to quit both on the same day or even week. I'm also using immodium to help control the watery stools. I'm just hoping this doesn't cause a blockage (as it's done in the past).In addition, since the scope of the j-pouch, I'm exhausted and have slept & slept. So I did increase the prednisone as the endocrinologist suggested under stress circumstances. I guess the stress is from the j-pouch scope & quiting the nicorette. I'll do this for 2-3 days, then go back to the maintenance dose of prednisone. I'm also using caffeine to increase my energy level. Hope I can sleep tonight.Have a good day! And please feel free to add your 2 cents to wish me well with quiting the gum and the eventually the nicotine patch. I have considered dying over quiting the nicotine - this is a profound addiction. But I realized that if I were actually at the point of dying, I would then probably gladly give up the nicotine in order to live. At least today, I'm figuring that I can get through this for one day. So I'll take this one day at a time.Marie

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