And so say all of us!! I still get a little of that urge but rarely compared to the past. In the past (hopefully stays that way!!) I would feel like I needed to expel a bowling ball from my poor suffering butt. Sometimes...often...that bowling ball felt like it was covered in sharp spikes!!! Never felt pain like it. When I would sit on the throne and push, there might be a half teaspoon of "stuff" (mucus) after wiping. The inside was described as looking like chopped liver!! By a doc who looked in there. It kept getting bacterial infections, like pouchitis disconnected J-pouch, in what's left of my rectum. Flagyl helped, but Flagyl and Cipro together seemed to clear it up after years of pain and suffering. I now get zero mucus and the horrible cramping is no more!!! Gone completely for a few years now...happily. Flagyl always helped alleviate the feeling of pressure and pain in my rectum. I was willing to try anything at that stage and an MAO member talked about Flagyl and Cipro together and it changed my life!!
I used to have to use women's pads (the small self-adhesive ones) because I would sometimes get a fair bit of very stinky grey mucus spurting out my butt at the worst time. No pads, no stinky, and very little pain now.
Some have described this as being similar to "phantom limb" pain, so that could be a factor, like your gut does want the old job back.