Unfortunately I know how you feel. I don’t have the option for a reversal but I can live with it as much as I dislike it.
I almost died with this surgery, got serious infections etc. I am also 80 years old. There would be no way I would go under surgery aain
@pidge32 hi. I’m 80 and my stoma is two and a bit years old. I chose (agreed with surgeon, aamof) that I’d go for the permanent stoma option. I felt that gave me some ‘control’ in the matter. Good value and I used it to accept the little chap. There was six months of chemo which perhaps distracted me a bit from awareness of just how bizarre it all is.,
Two years on, I can say I’m pretty well normalised except i sometimes look down at it and think WTF? But then I put a new bag on and resume life. I take some meds which make me tired and dopey and would say that’s actually worse.
The stoma behaves very well as long as I don’t get sloppy. I have had only a few ‘accidents’ but they’ve been in private.
A grandson asked me “what comes out?” I said “poo” . He went away quite satisfied, bless him.
@alyner my stoma is always prolapsing! It pops way out and it makes it very hard to change the bag.
I try to gently work it back in but it doesn’t always go back in.
Any helpful hints?
My solution to keeping the bag from moving around was double underpants. Used underpants that were similar to bikini briefs. My ileostomy was about 2 inches below my waist, so the top of the underpants was just a bit below it. I sewed the leg openings of the inside pair of undies to the leg openings of the outside pair. Then I slipped the bag between the the inside and outside pair. I also used a belt that snapped to the stoma ring. The double underpants method might not work for men's boxer shorts, but it would probably work for men's briefs.
Reading the post by @peggydobbs makes me think about the placement of my stoma and the problems that has caused for me. The top of my unit is above my waist and so clothing at once became a problem. Plus having a SPC (Suprapubic catheter) which is on the right side of my abdomen lower down and having to wear a leg bag on my calf added to that. No more leggings and now all my normal pants became too short waisted and became uncomfortable to my crotch. . Plus I need the straight legs so that I can empty my leg bag. The good news in all of this is that I'm 84 and no one cares what I wear...not even me any longer. So I've resorted to straight-legged maternity slacks to get enough room for a comfortable crotch. You can't tell they are maternity wear...all mt T-shirts and sweaters are long enough to cover that one.
Why the surgeon put my stoma up so high I'll never know...but suffice it to say...I don't like it.
@alyner my stoma is always prolapsing! It pops way out and it makes it very hard to change the bag.
I try to gently work it back in but it doesn’t always go back in.
Any helpful hints?
@pidge32 I have done ok emptying bag (mainly because I know it is temporary). But, I cannot change the bag and I have a homecare nurse come to my house weekly to clean my belly (I worry about getting infected) and put new bag in. I can’t stand to look at the stoma poking out and I can’t see the under side of it to clean it. I am having reversal surgery on Monday.
@alyner my stoma is always prolapsing! It pops way out and it makes it very hard to change the bag.
I try to gently work it back in but it doesn’t always go back in.
Any helpful hints?
@pidge32 I have a stoma that prolapses a bit, I think its not all that uncommon. It doesn't interfere with anything, though. It sounds like yours is more of a problem if its making it hard to do an appliance change.
Have you had a WOCN evaluate your stoma? Is it interfering with more than the appliance change?
@pidge32 I have a stoma that prolapses a bit, I think its not all that uncommon. It doesn't interfere with anything, though. It sounds like yours is more of a problem if its making it hard to do an appliance change.
Have you had a WOCN evaluate your stoma? Is it interfering with more than the appliance change?
@pidge32 I have done ok emptying bag (mainly because I know it is temporary). But, I cannot change the bag and I have a homecare nurse come to my house weekly to clean my belly (I worry about getting infected) and put new bag in. I can’t stand to look at the stoma poking out and I can’t see the under side of it to clean it. I am having reversal surgery on Monday.
@pidge32 Thank you. Getting a bit anxious, just hope I will get ‘more normal’ and can get back to living my life! Been dealing with this trauma for 8 mo. and just want to be my old self again. I am so sick and tired of my rear end being examined constantly…. Colonoscopy, 2 sigmoidoscopies, major surgery, homecare, and now another surgery all since October. It’s embarrassing. I’ve lost my modesty and dignity after all that. Good grief! Knock wood, I am rarely ever sick and this ordeal has been scary to me. My father died from colon cancer, and mom had most of her colon removed due to scar tissue from 30+ years of diverticulitis. My biggest fear was cancer, but thank God, I don’t have it.
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Unfortunately I know how you feel. I don’t have the option for a reversal but I can live with it as much as I dislike it.
I almost died with this surgery, got serious infections etc. I am also 80 years old. There would be no way I would go under surgery aain
@alyner my stoma is always prolapsing! It pops way out and it makes it very hard to change the bag.
I try to gently work it back in but it doesn’t always go back in.
Any helpful hints?
My solution to keeping the bag from moving around was double underpants. Used underpants that were similar to bikini briefs. My ileostomy was about 2 inches below my waist, so the top of the underpants was just a bit below it. I sewed the leg openings of the inside pair of undies to the leg openings of the outside pair. Then I slipped the bag between the the inside and outside pair. I also used a belt that snapped to the stoma ring. The double underpants method might not work for men's boxer shorts, but it would probably work for men's briefs.
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1 ReactionReading the post by @peggydobbs makes me think about the placement of my stoma and the problems that has caused for me. The top of my unit is above my waist and so clothing at once became a problem. Plus having a SPC (Suprapubic catheter) which is on the right side of my abdomen lower down and having to wear a leg bag on my calf added to that. No more leggings and now all my normal pants became too short waisted and became uncomfortable to my crotch. . Plus I need the straight legs so that I can empty my leg bag. The good news in all of this is that I'm 84 and no one cares what I wear...not even me any longer. So I've resorted to straight-legged maternity slacks to get enough room for a comfortable crotch. You can't tell they are maternity wear...all mt T-shirts and sweaters are long enough to cover that one.
Why the surgeon put my stoma up so high I'll never know...but suffice it to say...I don't like it.
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1 Reaction@pidge32 I have done ok emptying bag (mainly because I know it is temporary). But, I cannot change the bag and I have a homecare nurse come to my house weekly to clean my belly (I worry about getting infected) and put new bag in. I can’t stand to look at the stoma poking out and I can’t see the under side of it to clean it. I am having reversal surgery on Monday.
@pidge32 I have a stoma that prolapses a bit, I think its not all that uncommon. It doesn't interfere with anything, though. It sounds like yours is more of a problem if its making it hard to do an appliance change.
Have you had a WOCN evaluate your stoma? Is it interfering with more than the appliance change?
@susanf8 what is a WOCN??
@adlib071 good luck
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1 Reaction@pidge32 a WOCN is a Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse. Also called a stoma nurse, but they do more than that.
Hopefully you had one mark where the ostomy was to be placed and followup after to show you how to change the appliance?
@pidge32 Thank you. Getting a bit anxious, just hope I will get ‘more normal’ and can get back to living my life! Been dealing with this trauma for 8 mo. and just want to be my old self again. I am so sick and tired of my rear end being examined constantly…. Colonoscopy, 2 sigmoidoscopies, major surgery, homecare, and now another surgery all since October. It’s embarrassing. I’ve lost my modesty and dignity after all that. Good grief! Knock wood, I am rarely ever sick and this ordeal has been scary to me. My father died from colon cancer, and mom had most of her colon removed due to scar tissue from 30+ years of diverticulitis. My biggest fear was cancer, but thank God, I don’t have it.
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