Colostomy

Colostomy creation is a surgical procedure that is used for the removal of the injured and diseased colon. Your surgeon will put out the parts of your large bowel (colon) to the abdomen. As a result, a small opening is created that is called a stoma. This stoma allows the bowel contents to leave the body and then be stored in a pouch outside the body.

What do you need to do before the surgery?

Some weeks before our surgery, you will need to follow the below-mentioned things:

• You should stop consuming blood-thinning medicines. This involves NSAIDs like ibuprofen and aspirin. 

• You should fix a meeting with your healthcare expert. He or she will decide the best possible location for your stoma. He will mark the site with a pen or a marker. He will ask you to sit, stand and lie at different postures. This will prevent chances of leakage in the future.

• You will be asked to take antibiotics for avoiding infection.

• A healthcare expert will guide you about the solid and liquid foods you should consume. He will tell you which food can cause problems. Mostly, it is advised not to eat pork and raw veggies.

• You should only consume simple water one day before the surgery. It is recommended to mix enema or laxatives in water. This will help to clean your bowl.

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What can happen during the surgery?

You will be under general anesthesia during the whole surgery, you will feel no pain. Then your surgeon will proceed and make a single and long incision in your abdomen in case of open surgery. But in the case of laparoscopic surgery three to four small incisions are made and tools are inserted in the abdomen and it is filled with Carbon dioxide. This helps in the lifting away of the abdomen and the surrounding organs away from the colon and lessens the chances of damage to nearby organs. Then he will cut the colon and observe your injured or diseased colon very carefully.

Then your surgeon will divide the colon into two portions. He will remove the injured or the diseased part. One of the terminals will be brought to the stoma and stitch with the abdomen near the stoma. The other terminal of the colon will be brought to the second stoma or it will be closed. In case if the colostomy consists of two stomas, then a rod is located under the stoma to hold it above the skin. The remaining incisions are closed with the help of stitches and staples. The healthcare expert will attach a bag over the stoma and he will cover your stoma with a bandage.

In case of the removal of the rectum and anus, you might have a posterior wound. You will be given some pads and bandages to prevent drainage.

What can happen after the surgery?

You will be under strict observation until you get fully conscious. You need to stay in hospital for a week following the surgery. During this time you will learn how to take care of your stoma and how to use an Ostomy bag. 

What are some risks of colostomy creation?

Your colostomy can come back even after the treatment. There can be excessive and unexpected bleeding. Nearby organs and nerves may get damaged. The stoma can become narrowed or obstructed. A blood clot occurs in your leg or arm that can be fatal.

Due to the weakness in abdominal muscles, you may develop a hernia after the surgery. IN some cases the blood supply to stromal tissue is not adequate and as a result, those tissues die. There are chances of leakage of the colon into the abdomen. This may lead to a fatal infection. In such cases, more surgeries are needed.

When to call 911?

• If you experience dizziness, difficulty in breathing, chest pain.

• You experience blood with a cough.

• When do you need immediate care?

• If you are urinating very little or not at all

• If there is no bowel movement passing through the stoma.

• You experience a bad smell from your stoma or wound

• There is bleeding, blood vomiting, and blood is bowel contents.

• If you feel a hard or tender abdomen

• If your legs and arms are tender and swallowed

Medicines:

You may be given painkillers. Your PCP can guide you about the safe usage of this drug. Some painkillers have acetaminophen; you should not take these types of drugs without the permission of your doctor. If you take acetaminophen in large quantity it may damage your liver. These medicines can also cause constipation.

Take your medicine with the proper guidelines. In case if you observe that your medicines are not enough for you can ask your doctor. If you are allergic to that medicine discuss it with your doctor. Always keep with you a list of medicines, herbs, and antibiotics that you take. 

How to take care of yourself after the surgery?

You must not lift a weight more than 10 pounds four weeks following the surgery. Don’t bend or twist too much. 

You should avoid blood clots and pneumonia. If you need to walk, walk inside your house.

Observe and examine your stoma daily. Look for any kind of changes, soreness, or discomfort.

You are not allowed to drive until you get permission from your PCP.

Work with your Ostomy expert:

You should talk with your Ostomy expert. He will guide you on how to take care of yourself and your stoma. You will need to change the size of your bag after the healing of your stoma.

How to take care of your stoma?

Always look at your stoma each time you change your pouch. Your stoma should appear moist pink or red. You may notice some blood while cleaning your stoma. You will notice that after 8 weeks your stoma will get smaller.

Ensure that the skin barrier fits properly. The skin barrier of the flange is the part of the Ostomy pouch that adheres with the skin. It should be not much bigger than your stoma (1/8 inch) If it has a large opening there is a chance of leakage. This can cause skin discomfort, itchiness, and soreness. 

Soothe the sore skin: If you notice that your skin is turning red, it may indicate that you have placed the skin barrier for a long time. You can ask your PCP about the root cause of this irritation.

Take care of your posterior wound. Use soap and water to wash your soup every day. You can use pads to control the drainage.

Dietary changes after colostomy:

You should eat a lot of healthy foods after stoma surgery.. Increase the number of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, and lean meat. Avoid eating foods that cause cramps and diarrhea.

You should reduce the consumption of foods that cause gas and odor. Such as veggies like broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. Fish and other proteins rich foods can cause odor and gas. The foods that may help you to avoid odor and gas are:

• Parsley

• Yogurt

• Buttermilk

You should eat in portions and very slowly.

Drink the advised amount of liquid. You can ask your PCP how much water you need to drink daily and which fluids can work best. This may also ease constipation.

Why I Buy My Ostomy Supplies Online Now

Anyone with an ostomy knows how hard it can be to find the right ostomy supplies. Even way back before I actually had my surgery, I really hated having to go to the store on a regular basis. There’s nothing worse than having to hop in my car, drive all the way to the store, stroll through the busy aisles, and wait in long checkout lines just to purchase my groceries or supplies for that week. Honestly, there is nothing worse than trying to go to the store after work. Not only is it a huge time waster after a long day of working, but it also adds to the frustration of dealing with traffic and crowds of people at the end of the day. To tell you the truth, there would be another plague if it were up to me - there are way too many people on this planet. Okay, that may have been a little intense and I do not mean it. However, my complaint still stands that buying ostomy supplies in-store is way too much work and just not worth it. That is why I have simply started buying my ostomy supplies online. Have you ever bought something online? If you have, then you know that there are pros and cons to buying different types of products online. Honestly, the online shopping experience differs greatly from product to product, so I was doubtful about how buying the ostomy supplies I needed online would be. I am happy to report, however, that buying my ostomy supplies online was a super good decision that I will continue to make as long as I have this dang stoma with me.

Along with what I talked about earlier (the crowds, the time wasting, etc.), buying ostomy products online is better than shopping in stores for several other reasons. The first reason is that most in-person stores do not actually have a very good selection of ostomy supplies or products available for purchase. This makes me incredibly angry whenever I see this; after all, ostomates are people too, right? Well, some people don’t think so.

You would not believe the amount of times I have gone to a Walmart, Target, Walgreens, RiteAid, or any other big store that has simply not had ostomy products available for me to purchase. I mean, do ostomates really not matter at all? I eventually got so sick of it. I decided to start looking for alternate methods of purchasing the stoma supplies and accessories that I need. Some people with ostomies actually purchase their products through various hospitals or medical institutions - this is usually a very good option, as most hospitals have fairly decent prices on their ostomy products and also offer a good selection; however, I do not live close enough to a large hospital to make the trip to buy ostomy products worth it.

After I started looking for ostomy products online, I knew that I had struck gold as far as I was concerned. Online shopping is great because I can do anything I need from the comfort of my living room couch. No longer do I have to deal with long checkout lines or people wondering what type of products I am buying. Plus, shopping online offers a much wider selection of ostomy related products.

Is Your Ostomy Pouch Leaking?

There is truly nothing worse than having to deal with a leaky ostomy pouch. Those people reading this who have had to deal with that in their lifetime know exactly what I mean. If you’ve never had to deal with an ostomy life, then count your blessings. Seriously, you are probably one of the luckiest people on this planet. Having to get an ostomy is probably the worst thing that could ever happen to a human being in the history of time. There are a lot of different reasons that could cause an ostomy pouch system to leak, so it is sometimes hard to know just exactly what is causing a leak for that specific occurrence.

However, I am going to be writing about a short comprehensive list for some reasons that could cause your ostomy pouch to leak and how to avoid and fix them. A leaky ostomy pouch can often create a lot of social embarrassment and anxiety, mostly because you may find yourself stinking up an entire room all at once. So without further ado, here are some tips and tricks on how to prevent or fix a leaky ostomy pouch.

Firstly, like I mentioned already, there are a lot of different factors that could explain why your ostomy pouch is leaking. That being said, it is important to keep looking for different solutions until one of them seems to be working. So, what I am trying to tell you is that you should not feel discouraged just because you tried one method and it did not work out the way you wanted it to. One of the first reasons as to why your ostomy bag may be leaking is because the skin around the stoma is uneven. This can happen for a variety of reasons, so you might have to check a few different boxes before you can completely rule this solution out. The first thing might be that your stomach hair is getting in the way of you forming a good seal on the skin barrier - everybody has those fine little hairs on their stomach, and some more than others. So in the case that you are not getting a good seal on your skin barrier, it may be a good idea to shave the area around your stoma often. Remember to shave very carefully so that you do not harm your stoma!

Another reason why your skin might not be totally even around your stoma is because you have some skin folds or scarring that doesn’t allow for the skin barrier to get a good seal around the stoma. In this case, output and odor can leak in those tiny gaps of skin and pores and whatnot. Some tips that I have for you in this case is to use various products like stoma powder, paste, or adhesive gel that can help even out that surface around your stoma and seal on the skin barrier more effectively.

Another reason that your ostomy pouch may be leaking is because it is getting filled with gas too quickly, so you might want to look for ways to avoid gas. Unlike normal people who get gas, people with ostomies cannot control when the gas comes out and therefore can balloon up their ostomy pouches to the size of the Hindenburg at full capacity.

How To Empty and Clean An Ostomy Pouch

Let’s face it - everyone who has ever had to wear an ostomy pouch in the history of the world absolutely hates it when it is time to change the bag. Talk about bad smelling and gross looking output! Changing the ostomy pouch is probably the most frustrating part of having to wear an ostomy pouch, even more so than trying to hide it to prevent people from noticing that you have a stoma. To make things worse, it is actually quite difficult to get the hang of changing an ostomy pouch at first, so people who are new to the life of ostomy may struggle quite a bit at first.

It is honestly one of the most disgusting things that you can do. My girlfriend is a nursing student right now at the college we go to, and during one of her clinical rotations she had to change some overweight guys’ ostomy pouches and clean his stoma - she said it was probably one of the most disgusting things that she has ever done and it smelled awful. She said it took all of her strength to stay in the room and not gag while she changed the pouch and cleaned the stoma. That being said, there are some things about changing an ostomy pouch that make it a lot easier compared to what the novice methods contain, so I wanted to come on here and talk for a little bit about how to properly empty and clean an ostomy pouch.

So the first thing that you are going to have to do when you go to change the ostomy pouch is find a good place to do it. Obviously, (and I think most people know this, but I want to just make sure) you are going to need to find a private place to change out the pouch. Believe it or not, most normal people do not want to witness you removing your ostomy pouch and wathcing your stoma leak output everywhere onto the floor of the mall food court. That being said, being next to a toilet is the best place to be when you go to change your ostomy pouch.

You can either stand over the toilet or try to sit on it, whatever works best for you. However, it is worth mentioning that your stoma will likely leak output at some point while you are changing the ostomy pouch. Keep in mind also that it is going to smell absolutely awful to change out your ostomy pouch, so you may want to make sure that no one else is around so that you don’t make anyone lose their lunch or something like that. 

Most drainable ostomy pouches open up from the bottom of the pouch, so while you are leaning over the toilet you can just open that sucker up and let fly with all your contents from the past few hours or whatever. Keep in mind that the toilet water may splash up and onto your exposed abdomen while you are draining your ostomy pouch, so it might be a good idea to put some toilet paper down to prevent too much splashing. All this being said, this was probably one of the grosser articles that I have had to write and I wish that I didn’t have to know any of this information about ostomy.