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Swollen stoma

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Posted 11/26/2012 5:35 PM (GMT 0)
Hi everyone,

       Ive had my ileostomy for 1 year, ive noticed this morning its extremley swollen im also getting waves of bad cramps, does anyone know what this could be, really worried as my stoma is very swollen confused ....Thankyou in advance x

Posted 11/26/2012 8:42 PM (GMT 0)
I'm sorry to hear about your situation. :-( I'm not an experienced enough ostomate to be of any help, but I'd guess ddd45 might have some suggestions. For now I'd just make sure you stick to a low-residue diet (same as when you came out of surgery with a lot of swelling) to make sure you avoid risk of a blockage until it's figured out. Hope things improve for you. Keep us posted.
Posted 11/26/2012 8:46 PM (GMT 0)
Vicksie, how is your output? I think you could put in a call to your GI. I don't have any experiences with blockages, and when I had a stoma, I had no complications, but I would have suspected some level of blockage and called the GI right away. Good luck.
Posted 11/26/2012 8:52 PM (GMT 0)
thankyou Bootstrap and B'dereah,

   i am sticking to a low residue diet and my output is watery, im going to see how i am in the morning then get in touch with my dr, its just i can't believe how swollen my stoma has got....im guessing it maybe a blockage but a bit confused as why my stoma would swell ?

Posted 11/26/2012 8:57 PM (GMT 0)
yes it sounds like maybe you have a partial blockage, like something might be stuck right behind that stoma. I might even switch to only a liquid diet for 24 hours. Move around. LOTS. even if its painful. twisting,, bending. walking. hot showers, hot baths, massage your abdomen and back. See if you can get things moving through.

ALSO.. you may want to open up your wafer diameter a bit larger for now to allow for the swollen stoma to move more.. so it can output whatever it may be trying to output. So say you might usually use a 1" diameter hole in your wafer.. maybe up that to 1 1/4"diameter.

And yes, call your doctor in the AM. However if you start vomiting.. get yourself to the ER immediately.
good luck.
Posted 11/26/2012 9:08 PM (GMT 0)
thankyou ddd45, im heading for a hot bath now and will cut the flange hole bigger than what i usually do, fingers crossed it passes soon confused as its very uncomfortable ..
Posted 11/26/2012 10:52 PM (GMT 0)
Here;s the UOAA blockage card, good to have: http://www.ostomy.org/ostomy_info/pubs/blockage_card.pdf

It sounds a lot like when I had some partial blockages. ddd has good advice, I would add to drink grape juice. It can really push things through.

Hope you feel better soon, and go to the ER if you need to.

I had a few blockages last summer, and sometimes I could tell exactly when they cleared..... just all of a sudden felt tons better. Hope that happens for you soon. Hang in.
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