Life with Stoma

In cases when a bowel needs to be rerouted through an artificial hole called the stoma, depends on two surgeries one being a colonstomy or an ileostomy. Both surgeries are due to a disease that has caused a bowel blockage and the body is in need of a way to release feces. A colonstomy is an operation that connects the colon to the abdominal wall, whereas an ileostomy connects the last part of the small intestine, aka the ileum, to the abdominal wall. The decision to have a stoma placed can either be temporary while the bowel recovers or more than likely permanent due to bowel cancer or a more serious injury. 

A few things to put into consideration before undergoing these surgeries are your own person medical history, allergies and any medications that you are currently taking whether that be over the counter or herbal supplements, potential risks and complications that could happen while in surgery, and any and all concerns that you have regarding how life will be after surgery, the hygiene that it may require and altogether how you could feel about your self esteem. Below are a few conditions that may require you to consider having these surgeries if and when needed: 

• Bowel Infections

• Bowel Inflammation

• Diverticultis

• Crohn's Disease

• Ulcerative Colitis 

• Blocked Bowels

• Bowel Cancer

• Familial adenomatous polyposis(precancerous condition)

• Serious injuries to the bowel

  
  
  

These procedures often share similar surgical characteristics due to the providing the same outcome but with different parts of the body. The procedure would begin by preparing the bowel with a liquid diet and taking special medicine that would clean and provide an antibiotic bowel cleanse. After safety precautions and approval, the person would then undergo general anaesthetic, one that had been previously discussed. The surgeon would then mark the body when they intend on placing the stoma and then proceed to open the body. The diseased portion of the bowel would then be removed, while pulling the healthy portion out by a small incision in the abdomen. Surgeons would then sew the healthy portion and attach a plastic bag over the stoma to collect any waste disposed by the body. The larger incision would then be closed with stitches and poof, the surgery is done. After surgery, your healthcare providers would proceed to informing you about aftercare and home care in order to make life a bit easier for you. Some of these aftercare suggestions include the proper way of cleaning the stoma, ways to reduce any excessive odors, any foods that should be prevented to decrease and maintain odors, and how to be comfortable in your skin with the newly placed stoma bag. These stoma bags come in different types along with skin sealants, skin barriers and potential powders that are safe to use. 

If the stoma surgery was temporary, you can expect that another operation will be dated in order to reattach the bowel so that you can dispose of feces the original way. However, if the stoma is permanent, you can expect to be checked no later than a month after in order to assure that the stoma has kept an appropriate diameter and is still intact. Stoma associates are available upon to request to help support a permanent stoma surgery mentally and emotionally. 

Why Traveling With an Ostomy Should Not Trouble You

Traveling around the world and touring exotic places is one of the best pleasures of life. However, people with a stoma are afraid that their conditions will limit them from traveling. In reality, a stoma need not keep you away from planning a city break or engaging in those once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Always be prepared. When it comes to traveling with a stoma, this motto should always come first in your mind, and you will enjoy life to the fullest. Before your journey, there are several factors you should plan for, including:

• Number of appliance changes you will require during the duration of your trip

• Additional appliances that you might need to account for unexpected delays travel plans

• Extra colostomy bags to account for unforeseen leakages or failures of your appliances

Traveling with excess ostomy bags is better than traveling with more minor appliances as it will give you an easy time. Also, you should ensure that you've all tools required for ostomy care, including wipes, scissors, belts, barrier strips and skin protectants. In this article, I'll answer more questions about traveling with a stoma.

Traveling by Plane

First things first, when traveling by plane, you should always consider seats near the toilet to give you easier access in case of any leakages. It would help if you also considered carrying all your ostomy supplies with you in your hand luggage. This is beneficial as it will help to ensure safe custody of your supplies which may go astray while in the cargo area.

During your flight, there is a chance that your bag will balloon caused by increased gas in your pouch. The foods and drinks you take can be the most significant cause of the gas formation and should be avoided when traveling. Some of the foods and drinks to avoid include carbonated drinks, beer,

and candies.

Impacts of Weather Changes

When traveling, it's more likely that you will experience changes in temperatures that can affect your appliances' stickiness. When traveling to cooler climates, store your devices at average temperatures. When traveling to hot regions with high humidity, it's advisable to keep your bags in a cool place away from direct sunlight to avoid damaging adhesives.

Swimming and other sports activities

Having a stoma should not be the barrier to participating in water activities during your travel. Having the right gear will give you comfort as you engage in this activity. For instance, you can switch to smaller stoma caps which are discrete under swimwear and provide more predictability to stoma function. You can also use mini pouches, which have a slightly larger capacity.

When participating in other sporting activities, ostomy belts will guarantee you more additional security. You can also use a stoma guard to protect your stoma from potential trauma. Contact your nurse to verify whether stoma guards, belts, mini pouches and stoma caps are available for your pouching system.

Traveling for Extended Periods

Not all your travels will involve a short time. In some incidences, you will be required to spend a much longer time. When traveling for extended periods, carrying all your ostomy products in your hand luggage is not realistic as it can be bulky. However, you need not worry. Most ostomy appliance suppliers have directories globally where you can shop the things you never carried. Remember to record your product's size, product name, and order number to avoid buying an appliance that cannot fit in your stoma.

How To Avoid Ostomy Pancaking

Ostomy pancaking is one of the most common issues that ostomates face. For some people, this problem might remain unresolvable, even after trying too many fixes. In this article, we will discuss different ways to avoid this bothersome issue.

What is pancaking?

Pancaking refers to the internal layers of a stoma bag coming together, resulting in a vacuum that prevents waste materials from dropping to the bottom of the bag. As a result, stool remains at the stoma level, heightening the risk of filter blockage. It can also cause an ostomy bag to come off.

Choose the right clothing

In most cases, the right clothing can be the answer to the pancaking problem. Ideally, you will want to wear loose-fitting pants with a tight waistband. You will need to make sure to have the waistband sitting just above the stoma. It will apply the necessary pressure to the top of the stoma bag. An adequate breathing space down the pants will allow your ostomy bag to form a hollow space at the bottom. This way, stools will slide towards the bottom of the bag more easily.

You can also fold the top of the ostomy bag and tuck it into the waistband. It will prevent the formation of space, which encourages the pancaking of the ostomy bag. This method will also prevent the accumulation of the stool around the filter.

The above techniques should work to prevent pancaking, but the time comes when they no longer work. It is probably because you need to empty or replace your ostomy pouch now. If that too is not the option at moment, you may want to find a private place to work your fingers on the bag to force-slide the stool down to the bottom. You will, however, need to be careful not to put too much pressure during the process to prevent the seal between the skin barrier and peristomal skin from weakening.

Some other practical tricks to prevent pancaking

You can address the pancaking issue by using some out-of-the-box tricks. You will, however, need to analyze your situation to make sure that whether or not any of these tricks are applicable in your case.

• Sometimes, you may want to inflate the pouch by blowing air into it. Then you will need to pull the inner walls of the bag apart from each other before wearing the ostomy pouch.
• Sometimes, the air inside the bag may escape from the filter as soon as you inflate the bag. It can result in the bag collapsing. You can roll up a piece of tissue paper to form a tube. Inserting this tube into the filter opening will reduce the amount of air leaking escaping the pouch.
• Lubricating the inner walls of the pouch are yet another method to reduce the impact of pancaking. The best thing about this approach is that it doesn’t necessitate keeping the inner walls apart. The lubrication will cause the stool to slide down to the bottom more smoothly. You can use baby oil or lubricating deodorants that are specifically made for ostomy supplies.

These methods should help you prevent the pancaking or its impact.

Doing what you love with your stoma no matter what

I have started to read much more now that COVID-19 has come into the world.  Most entertainment has been stopped and that is cause for a good book.  So I have been reading lots of old books on survival, bushcraft, and mainly hunting.  That is because I have seen the United States Economy shift into a downward spiral and seen the supply chain breakdown.  It made me wonder about many things and safety came to mind.  I have a stoma, so having the right gear came to mind, and being able to have it available was really important.  Then the idea of having the right gear and having food came to mind and if stores stopped having food what would I do. That is why I started to look back at what people who had ostomy back in the day did and how they survived because it is incredible to see what can be done. 

I shopped a lot on amazon and they sent a lot of packages my way.  Being stuck at home with me and my stoma I had lots of time to read and especially since I started working from home.  But hunting seemed to be the topic that I always came back to.  If people could go out and procure enough meat for a whole month with a single deer, I knew that it was something that could be an answer to the food issue.  See when it came to the ostomy gear issue, I had already started stocking up months ago.  Learning about how to survive a small economic collapse or just a natural disaster is useful. 

Now with a stoma,  I cannot survive with simply ostomy bags, sanitizing gear, and skincare.  This is an important healthcare need of mine.  Food is a big deal and my biggest worry was that my ostomy bag would keep me out of being successful in the hunting world.  So I searched for a long time on how sensitive animals smell was.  This kinda made me a bit sad, because their sense of smell is so far beyond ours as humans I thought they would smell me a mile away.  The truth is that they can and most likely will.  The scent blocking products are very prevalent. 

I have a lot of options and there are pills that I can take to minimize my own waste smells and even sprays that I can put in my bags that are order eliminating.  That is pretty cool.  So I made sure to pick some up and then also work on scent-blocking clothing.  That is very available in the hunting world and with that combined, I have seen many posts on online forums where men and women in my situation have been very successful.  This was a huge boom to my personal fears because I knew that with the right skills and location that I could hunt, and provide for my family.  

 It doesn't hurt to spend a lot of time watching youtube videos of hunting and then tried to find specific accounts of people who have a stoma on social media and follow them.  I want to know how to do things that I normally don't and I have to say I have learned so much over the past few months that I feel safe, less worried, and prepared.

Fashion and ostomies Exist

It is true that I am not the best-looking human on the planet. In fact, I am not even in that great of shape and to top it all off I have a stoma.  That means that I am a person who walks around with an ostomy bag every single day.  That doesn't exactly make me prince charming, but that was all before I learned how to dress.  Yes, even a fashion backward individual like me can move into 2020 and look good on the few occasions that we are heading out.  It is shocking to think about but looking good has been even more important to me now after my ostomy than it ever was before.  I admit it, I am more self-conscious and more prone to feeling out of place because of my ostomy bag.  But part of looking good is learning and also using what you know.

 

My experience with learning about fashion started when I found out that social media and people with stoma's were a thing.  It blew my mind to think that other people who had a stoma were willing to show their journey and clothing tips with others.  In fact, there were hundreds of social media stars and channels that are out there just to show how things are done and what is working for them.  Now, as with all things online or in 2020 a large amount of bias is involved and that is simply because people are paid by sponsors all the time.  Heck, most of my favorite channels are sponsored by major brands, in the ostomy gear world, but they let people know about it and we can take our own opinions based on it.

 

I would still suggest learning from social media giants and moguls and getting all the tips you can because they generally show their lives and what gear works and in what situations.  It still shocks me that people are willing to talk about the worst day of their lives over and over again, but hey if you get money for it and you know it's helping others like me, then I am totally all for it.  That is why I still support it.  So that is the first bit of advice and it is to simply get active in the internet world and find people who like to do what you do or that you like to look like and follow them.  That is my personal advice on that whole area and it is to jump on in.

 

The next thing I want people to think about is that if you are a good American and carry like we all have the right to then learning how to conceal an ostomy bag is second nature to you.  Just like concealed carrying a gun an ostomy bag is similar.  For me, I have done this my entire life and until someone told me to think like my bag was a gun I always found it hard.  But the reality is that they print the same and that they are in similar locations.  I found out that the belly band I used to use for a holster turns out to be a great idea for an ostomy bag as well. So give that whole realm of thinking a try as well and you may see that you are already good at this kind of fashion.

Is Discharge from a Rectal Stump Normal

Some people may have their rectum and large intestine removed in the event of IBD. That means, they’re getting everything removed and the output goes through the stool rather than the rectum. 

Occasionally though, there is discharge from where your bottom is, even though have a stoma.  You may wonder if there is a concern for this, but here, we’ll discuss what a rectum output and leak is and whether to treat this or not. 

Why it Might discharge 

The rectum is tissue that’s living and will create mucus even when it’s not hooked up, and stool isn’t passing through this. Mucus is part of stool normally, but not usually present enough for it to be visible in some cases.

 

Without stool, you may see mucus in the rectum, and it becomes apparent. Usually, this is a watery consistency, and you may wonder if you should worry. Gauze or a napkin usually helps with this, and you can even just sit on the toilet to push the mucus out of there. Usually though, it isn’t very common. 

When Should I be Worried 

Usually, you shouldn’t be too worried. For most people, after they get the ostomy surgery, they just see an output from the stoma itself, and that needs to be changed so that it doesn’t fill up too much. 

But in some cases, the mucus may be too much, and it might be bothersome, or has a bad odor. In some cases, it also may be a green or a yellowish color, which in that case, it may be another problem, and it may also lead to infection in the area. If that’s the case, you will want to make sure that you talk to your doctor, to ensure that if you have any symptoms or pain along with this, they are treated. 

If there is blood, that’s when you definitely should talk to them.  It may not be serious, but in other cases, it might be a serious problem for many people. If that’s the case, you should talk to your doctor or healthcare provider if you need someone to make sure that it’s nothing to be worried about. Sometimes, this discharge also make you feel like you have to sit on your toilet, even with a stoma. This can be a very confusing thing but remember that it isn’t just stool that comes out of there, but also mucus too, and that’s actually quite normal. 

The tissues within your rectum do still make substances and bacteria, since it is still a living area. Normally, these leave in the form of your stool, but since you have the ostomy that diverts it, they just leave the body on their own. The one downside to this is that it’s hard for these fluids to be contained since they are not mixed within the stool. 

Having leaks also doesn’t mean that the ostomy is reversed either.  In some cases, there may be some excess stool and mucus and fluids may still be in there, even after surgery. 

The only time you might want to talk to your doctor about this, is fi it starts to be a foul smell, causes pain, or if it’s a strange color. If you notice blood in there too, you also might want to talk to your health care provider as that could be a sign of a serious concern, and it’s something that a lot of people do struggle with as well when they are trying to cope with life after an ostomy surgery, and the problems with it. 

Having a morning brew and a stoma change

The warm smell of coffee is literally what keeps me going.  I somehow wonder what I would do if the world went to H. E. double hockey sticks and I was left with no coffee.  That would be a tragedy but this morning was just like any other morning. Well except that I am forced to be trapped at home due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  So it is a little different, but I was thinking about coffee as I drink my morning cup of coffee.  It is part of my routine.  I wake up, let the dogs out, hit the bathroom, and turn on the coffee machine.  I am a little vague on what machine because sometimes it's a pot or sometimes it's a K-cup machine or now it really is mostly Cold-Brew.. To be honest, I am not that picky when it comes to coffee as long as I have some.  Drinking coffee started at a young age but I really didn’t drink much until I turned mid 30’s and needed to be awake in the morning and fast.  

I began as any basic b. would, and I started by drinking it with sugar and creamer.  But as the years have gone on and my health has gotten worse I have started to simply drink it black.  Thank goodness I have evolved as a man and a coffee drinker.  Now having an ostomy causes a few questions that always crack me up.  Does coffee still do the same thing in the morning with one as it would without?  Well if you don’t get my meaning the average person who drinks coffee generally finds themselves on the toilet pretty quick after their first cup of coffee in the morning.  The proverbial mud butt.  Well, that is indeed why I use a good brand from a major manufacturer for all of my gear.  But in all seriousness yes, it is the same! It happens fast and in a rush.  

So it may just be my body, but I want a good seal on all my gear.  I tried a bunch of stuff starting out and there are lots of good companies and people willing to help. I ended up mostly using a few of the big brand names for my gear because they let me try it all first.  They also spent time with me to understand my needs and wants.  I may be a picky coffee drinker, but I am way worse when it comes to gear.  If I am planning a trip I want to make sure I am safe and don't even have to think about my stoma when hiking or skiing.  

But my coffee in the morning is still the same and the effects are still the same, and I don’t worry about it.  Having the right equipment keeps me safe and from any intense leaks!  Nothing could be worse than a shart times 10 if you know what I mean.  And if you are offended, by me writing this, lighten up.  Try to have some humor in life because that is the best way to make it through difficult situations.  Be wise and don't be a jerk when something goes wrong and life will be cool. So be kind, and enjoy a nice morning cup of coffee.