Anyone heard from Rosemary?

Rosemary,
It's not your time yet, no such talking here. You know the drill, it's early days after your surgery and you have been through a lot and it always takes time to settle. Be patient with yourself and don't expect it's plain sailing straight after your op. there is no such things like a perfect stoma.
did you have any solids while you were in hospital? In the UK they won't discharge you until you've eaten a proper solid meal (and it has come out at the stoma end). Maybe you could stick to the foods you were ok with during your hospital stay. I wouldn't worry about the consistency too much. Mine is pretty liquid too and I empty my bag probably 3 times in the morning and more often after lunch. I drink a lot of tea at work and at home, always have. During the night however i often have only little output and it only starts after i have my first cup of coffee in the morning. so what you describe as " melting down" may be something not uncommon to the stomafunction. After my surgery in May I have often quite servere pain down my left side and no or only little output during the night, thought I had adhesions or a blockage. Now I know by just leaving out diary in the evening, the pain was caused by trapped wind. Problem solved, mind at ease. Try eating earlier in the day when you are still active.
We are still here to support you, you are not alone in this. Hang in there! ((Hugs))

Your kitty wants to see you again too!

You know all this as you probably told me to same thing...eat/drink what your stoma likes right now. It is sooo soon after surgery. You have been through alot the past several years and have have a right to be down. But anesthesia will enhance depression and anxiety that's already present (psychiatrist told me that). Hang in then, keep venting, we are all here to "listen" to you.

Prayers your way.

Rosemary, I believe your stoma is hard as it is still swollen from surgery and that may contribute to the slow peristalsis and output taken his time coming out. It will go down in the next 4-6 weeks. Your whole belly still might be swollen from surgery. You need to walk and keep moving, it not only helps your guts, but also helps to get rid of the oedema around the surgery site and the stoma and reduce the swelling. Besides a food log I would also keep an activity log. We want you to report back at the end of the day with what you've eaten and what you have done.
Secondly, just to let you know how my stoma looks like, the second, end ileo: it was really rock solid and static coming straight out of surgery compared to my loop ileo before which was a wriggly worm. My new ileo could spit a pea (or bits there of a few meters), as the weeks went on my stoma's swelling went down and it became more wriggly, except 1/4: the 3-6o'clock part is still rock solid and also a slightly darker red. on the hard part of the stoma i often have ulcers, due to cloths rubbing i think and it now makes my stoma opening pointing to the right. I showed it to my CR surgeon last week and he said the ulcers are just minor trauma and perfectly normal.

I am thinking positive thoughts for you this time, Rosemary. Most of what you describe sounds completely normal to me. I have the "fire hydrant effect" every morning. Most of my dinner doesn't push out until I drink fresh juice the next morning. When it does come out, there is a lot of liquid pushing out very thick stuff. Sometimes there is even nausea and a bit of discomfort until it all pushes out. As long as it comes out in a timely manner, I just try not to worry.

1am had yogurt and cereal to counteract the too much output from gatorade. Some really thick poo came out earlier then not much. Drank a half liter of water while I walked for 2 hours around a neat musical instrument museum.

Peed 250 cc's then just got back and was going to have some cranberry juice. All if a sudden I got the fire hydrant affect and liquid sort of gushed out all the solidy stuff the cereal and yogurt from this morning either from 1 am or from 8 am.

Better out than in. But does this mean I should now have something to eat? Or leave well enough alone?

Hi Rosemary - it sounds like this things are working better than they were before. And you've been hungry!

I personally don't feel peristalsis with my stoma. Every once in awhile I might but most of the time I feel nothing (unless it expels air...then it tickles!)

I'm very inexperienced with this all and haven't had as many problems as you have, but maybe you should try and not dwell on the stoma activity timing? Yes, make sure things (especially solids) make it through, but don't stress if it's four hours versus eight hours versus ten hours.

Yeah that trip to the museum was a god send. Really hungry now but gotta get in my nap before I eat anything. I want a do-over living in the southwest and never have any surgery except emergency style stuff. Always a good code to live by. My stoma just farted. YEAH!!!!!!!!!

Ddd

Did saltines and chicken noodle soup get stuck behind your stoma? I had to drink a lot of grape juice to get those to move out. Also yogurt and rice crispies and mile get stuck and need me to induce diarrhea for them to get out. Part of my wound is seeping yellow stuff.

Yes I have two small yellow white ulcers. While cleaning my stoma they bled briefly.

Going tobtry and see stoma nurse. Have some wound seepage I am trying to bag around. Just a walk today.

Am in phoenix arizona. Hot and very dry.

Shoukd have moved here back when I was all together - love this part of the country. Sun is always out.

Rosemary,
SO sorry you are still going thru all this, but it sounds like you are doing a bit better mentally (YEAH!) and that is half the battle. I wish I had words of wisdom to give you, but all I can offer is what everyone else has, love, friendship and support. Just by coming here you know you are not alone in this.
Best of luck, and chin up.. :)

Hi Rosemary,
How are you doing today? Did you get any rest last night?

That's good news, well done. rice crispies or cornflakes is the first thing you get to eat in uk hospitals, so they are pretty save. Try to get out and about too later in the evening when it's cooler (does it cool down at night?). We've all been stuck in hospital beds for too long. I find a good escape route from all what's happening to us is reading books. do you read anything at the moment?