I have joined your ranks

I did read your other post on the Crohn's board! So happy things are going well for you in these early days! In a couple weeks you aren't going to believe how much better you feel!

Happy healing NCOT!!!!

Hugs!

Congratulations! So happy to hear you're home and doing well. Im off to the crohn's board to read your whole story now ;)

Okay back. Wow, people are very nice on the crohn's board! Not like at your hospital, haha. My surgery was the same as yours except they only left the rectum, no sigmoid. My rectum had been quite bad before surgery and went into spontaneous remission for about a month, but I caught a bad cold at the same time I finished my pred taper and the rectum started flaring again. I hope you get much more enduring relief :)

Best of luck for the rest of your recovery. The stoma can be overwhelming in the first couple of weeks but when you get to eat your favorite foods and go out without worry you'll see it's your best friend :D

Nice to see you over here, NCOT.

Continued good luck w/your recovery and adjustment - there are many of us here to help you along should you need it .

Thank you muchly, guys :p

I know it's very early days still, and there's many a slip between the cup and lip, etc. etc., but so far I honestly couldn't be much happier with the results. Extremely glad to be home and am doing well. Changing the bags is still a somewhat slow and ungainly procedure, but straightforward enough. Emptying the bag couldn't be any simpler. Undo bag; drop contents; wipe bag; redo bag, done. The only thing I have to watch out for is the splash factor... >_>

I do appreciate it won't always remain this simple and that problems will probably crop up along the line. But for now it is this simple and I am grateful for it.

@dude - There's two reasons why the surgeon left the rectum in. One, it makes for a safer operation and two, it allows for the possibility of reconnecting the small bowel to the rectum in the future. Apparently it's much simpler and easier to remove just the colon than it is to remove the colon and rectum. It's because the rectum is close to the pelvic area, which in turn is close to the areas that supply blood nerves to the sexual organs - something like that. Anyway, the take-home message is that there is a small risk of sexual dysfunction with pelvic/rectal surgery. There's no way on earth that I, with my immensely active sex life... oh wait, never mind, forget I ever said anything... <_<.

Also, by leaving the rectum and part of the sigmoid behind, it allows for a small bowel reconnection in the future. There would be no possibility of that if the rectum was removed.

Re: splashing...

Take a couple squares of toilet paper, fold them over, and lay them on the surface of the water. Empty on to them and it will significantly cut down on splashing.

Re splashing.

I've never found laying a carpet of toilet paper on the surface of the water to work that well, maybe because the toilet paper goes soggy in about 0.5 seconds flat. It works better if I lay the toilet paper above the water and empty the bag's contents on that, but it does depend on having a fairly good aim.

The lowering the water level is an interesting suggestion! As it so happens, the upstairs toilet (which is the one I use 99% of the time) is currently out of commission due to a leak - it literally couldn't have timed its trip up $*** creek without a paddle at a more perfect time. I'll mention it to my dad, who perhaps in turn can mention it to the plumber.

Changing the subject, I saw the stoma nurse on Thursday. It went very well; whatever she is paid she is worth triple that. She changed the bag for me. There was a sore and raw-ish edge around the stoma, which I had thought might be due to the stoma shrinking, but was apparently due to faeces leaking onto the skin :-/ Anyway, she gave me a powder to put onto it, and a supply of seals to go over it as well. It's apparently normal for this stage and will pass, so I'm not too worried about it.

Got a few different brands of bags to try out. I now finally know what a two-piece is <_<. Seeing the nurse again in two weeks, but she gave me her email address in case I have any queries in the meantime. Still doing fine with the stoma. I'd say the worst thing at the moment is sleeping. It hurts too much to sleep on my front still. Waking up every 2 hours is a pain. I hope that passes and I can start sleeping for longer periods at a stretch without waking up.

Thanks, CrohnieCJ :p

Yes, I realise I'm lucky to have a good stoma nurse. Thanks to nurses who did, in fact, know how to change a stoma, ironically enough the stoma was one of the least stressful aspects of my stay in hospital. That said, I still managed to utterly botch up a bag change yesterday, but it wasn't the nurse's fault: she had instructed me decently enough. However, I have the memory of a goldfish and forgot a crucial step when applying the seal. I also messed up the 'crusting' part.

I think I need another lesson in how to apply the stoma powder, in fact... :-/ Hated that stuff.

Yeah, the nurse said I wouldn't always need to use the powder, thank god :-/ Didn't change the bag yesterday, so am gonna have a go at changing it today - would wait one more day, but am going out tomorrow.

Hate changing the bags; that's the thing I dislike the most about having a stoma so far. I guess in time it'll become second nature...

Oh god, I hate that fear of output coming out. Also, was I the only one to get a surprise when I noticed my stoma pulsating slowly in and out... like some living, breathing thing? :/

I think I'm slipping into depression... :/ Not because of the pulsating thing I hasten to add; that was just something odd I noticed the other day. But stress over things like having to spend hours each week chasing up pain meds; frettting about running out of them; still being in pain; crappy bag changes, etc. are wearing me down. I wish I felt physically better than this.

Also feel so horribly alone at times... :/ Even though nobody has been unkind or horrible.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 3/12/2013 2:10:18 PM (GMT-6)

I dunno; I just feel so utterly, utterly useless. I have a dread that I will never be healthy again. I don't really care about the stoma or the bag, but I do care about not being well. I'm scared, beyond scared.

Went for a walk today. It was nice at the time, but I just end up feeling as bad, if not even worse, later on than if I'd done nothing at all.

Could be the pain meds. On oxycodone.

Hi NCOT,
I have no reason to be on the ostomy forum except I was missing you and wondering how you were doing. (Does that make me a weird lurker???) I think it's really normal to gear up your emotions before a big surgery, and then be relieved when it's over and you are alive with no major complications. The depression sets in later (around now) because you are still recovering, weak and tired. Pain medicine always makes me weepy too. Try not to over- think things....just put one foot in front of the other and do what you need to do to take care of yourself. Are you able to eat now without pain? I hope you can hang in there....I'll be thinking of you.

The thing that helped me most about three weeks out of surgery was getting out of the house whether for lunch, a coffee, a walk, light shopping. I needed to be with other people who weren't hovering or asking me how I was every 30 seconds. I know everyone meant well but for me to move on, I couldn't be going backwards every day. I even went into work and sat at my desk, fired up my computer, read my emails and then went home again.

Even now, seven months out, I find walking very helpful, especially now that our cold Canadian winter is just about over. Having returned to work also helps too. I had a meeting with all of my staff, told them what happened, explained what's next, showed them a sample of my flange and pouch, told my admin assistant where my emergency kit was and then answered all of their questions. Now, we have moved on. Everyone knows the story and there is no secrets and no one is hovering waiting for me to collapse.

I promise you, once you start feeling better, the swelling goes down, you work out a system for your change routine, you start realizing what you CAN do instead of what you never used to be able to do, you will feel much better and ready to jump into life!!!

Have a wonderful day! The birds are out singing, the sun is shining and the kids are still sleeping!!!! I have my newspaper and coffee and most importantly, my health. Ha ha ha! Just as I type that "Lily", my stoma, just let out a loud noise.....must be breakfast time!

K