21 year old, new ostomy, surgery was last week

Hey everyone,

 I was diagnosed with left sided ulcerative colitis two years ago and it progressed to being severe resulting in my having a total colectomy with illeostomy, last thursday. I am aware that it hasn't even been a week since my surgery and I need to be patient with recovery. I just have some questions for you fellow ostomy buddies. Of course, since i am 21, and thriving to go out and live life, I just wanted to make sure it was normal for me to feel like i've literally been HIT BY A BUS. My abdominal muscles hurt with every move, it hurts to take deep breaths or laugh. Also, I noticed today that my ostomy actually looks a bit larger than it did last week and was protruding more than it was when i got the initial surgery. not by much, but my precut wafer i had last week is a bit smaller. is this normal or something i should be concerned about? bare with me with the questions, i apologize, i just feel like i am dealing with this on my own since no one in my family can really grasp this whole concept. I am super negative sometimes so i feel like if my ostomy is drooping or bigger that its never going to go down because i have terrible luck. i dont know...i just want to know how long i should expect to really recover. i havent really been able to find a real answer. 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 2 months? any advice would be so appreciated. also, i got it done laproscopically (sp?) and i have an incision above my belly button, one over my pubic area, and one to the left of my belly button...and they were glued closed instead of stitched...how long should that be before the glue wears off or heads the incisions. thank you guys for listening. <3

Some advice I remembered for my husband was to think in terms of a week at a time and not a day...by that I mean at the end of each week you will definitely notice things you can do that you couldn't do the week before. It does take time and you are feeling like everyone else after such MAJOR surgery.

Precut wafers in the beginning are not recommended as I understand it..you need to use the paper measuring guide and trace onto the wafer and cut it for what your stoma size is. It will take a few months for it to become its destined size I believe. You should be trimming the wafer to fit your stoma size..you don't want it too tight.

Protein is your friend...be sure to consume as much as you can as it definitely helps to speed up your healing. Lots of water and chew chew chew. The slimfast protein powder mixed with milk (we prefer those over the canned ready made shakes) gives you 15 grams of protein. Especially when your appetite isn't the best initially and you want to be careful of the foods you eat and introduce so early on in your healing process.

Hubby has a 10 1/2" incision which was sewn inside and glued on the outside. His has healed beautifully and his hairy chest covers it...except for a little dimple at the very top you don't even see it. Having yours done with minimal scarring with the laproscopic procedure is good as my sister has a very large incision.

Be patient and keep up with pain medication if and when you need it for the time being to keep you out of such discomfort.

Good luck - it will get easier and easier. Just concentrate on convalescing and don't try to do too much.

My husband's Dr told him to realistically accept the fact it could take up to a full year to feel completely normal and back to his old self. His surgery was last Dec. and with the exception of some back issues he was doing very well within 5-6 months. I had had enough and made appts..... He had 3 sessions with a chiropractor in the past 2 weeks and is 100% better in that regard...if he went sooner he would have felt better even sooner. Typical guy just thinking...it's gonna get better.

(For some reason his back after the surgery went out of whack and wasn't right .. while healing he obviously was favoring one side over the other being unable to sit and lie in the normal positions. His hips were out of alignment and one leg shorter than the other. All better now....YAY!!!)

I had a laparotomy and it was then open to heal on its own, closed about 7 weeks. I did hurt, hurt to park the car, laugh, sneeze, turn my body. After 2 months, I could sleep on my side and 3 months was confident to hit the gym. I lost almost 40 pounds, so being rather week, it took awhile to heal, was anemic for 4 months. But you will heal much faster than I, in a month you will see a dramatic difference as to how you feel now. Stoma size will continue to change, I used moldable wafers early on and still continue to use them. Our bodies are just so amazing and I'm sure you will do just great!

I felt like I got hit by a bus then it backed up and ran over me again, just to make sure it didn't miss :)
Your stoma will change sizes for a while, possibly for the first six months. Unless iit turns colors or goes way back in its ok. Having one that sticks out is good. It can take up to a year to get back to normal. Within about 3 months I was at the gym, walking, running, going all over, at the beach, and keeping up with a 2 year old! Your strentgh will come back and you will feel better, hrdest thing ever just be patient