suggestions needed

I have had my current ileostomy since april this year it was a revision due to stenosis a very small opening....My stoma sits flush and the hole is at the bottom...If i just eat normal my output is very thick i can drink a ton of water but that does not change the output at all...if i just eat very locarb ie. just meats eggs and very little if any veggies my output is much thinner..When i eat "normal i usually get a leak about every other day....i get no leaks eating the Locarb way..so do i 1. think about getting another revision and see a new surgeon as my surgeon has moved and insurance won't cover him....or 2. Do I continue to eat locarb...and 3. Do any of you have suggestions to THIN my output out...Thank you for any and all suggestions DEBBI

Debbi,

Grape juice is a great thinner. I too just had a revision due to a severe stenosis that went unaddressed by the place I had been going to for 4 years since I got the original ileo that was fine 4 years. The original ileostomy surgeon had retired and his successors really dropped the ball. I was in agony for 3 months on IV's. FINALLY I had to find my own help. It was a very good laproscopic general surgeon BUT I understood his colorectal surgery partner would do the stoma and he would do the adhesion lysis part. He did the whole thing. The stoma worked great at first when it was swollen then as the swelling disappeared part of it grew way out on my skin and only 1/2 inch across is the new diameter of this stoma. The old stoma was 7/8th inch across.

I am getting signs of restenosis but none was found on a finger exam of a resident of a different doc due to the revision doc being away after I had a major food blockage. two cracks appeared in my stoma after the finger exam into it with a very tiny pinky of a residnet.. No stenosis found but now I have scar tissue healing the stoma. So how well will it work after the stoma is all scarred itself. BUT lucky the cracks are healing as I was told if one of the cracks had gone beneath the skin level I would get peritonitis.

I am casting about for a "go to" doc if I ever HAVE to have a revision of the revision. I have been thru so much that I cannot stand the thought of more surgery, but if i ever do get a restenosis I have to have a plan. I can relate to you. Does not sound like you have all the adhesion issues I do, but I can relate. I am getting into protein shakes and yogurt and scrambled egg occasionally. I do too much ice cream. But this stoma simply will not put out anything dense even bread is off my list. Rosemary