something's wrong

i hope you guys have some ideas about what could be wrong with my stoma, or more accurate, around it.

just a bit review, 4 yrs ago had my colon removed, except for the rectum and small intestine attatched to the rectum. a year later had a loop ileostomy created. about a month ago had the rectal stump removed. but i wanted to explain first about my stoma. my surgeon decided not to create an end ileostomy. he decided to just cut on the distal loop of the stoma instead (the one that was going down the streem to the rectum). so on the outside my stoma stayed just the way it was before surgery and still looks like a loop stoma, but on the inside the continuance of the intestine to rectum that was there is now cut and shutt closed. i hope i explained it ok.

so ever since the surgery i had no issues with my stoma or skin around it. but for the past 2 days i've been feeling it itching badly around the stoma. so i was sure stools was leaking and i must change the wafer. well, i just did and there was no leak. all looked good and sealed perfectly. but i found there were several blisters and half the circle around my stoma looks like there's black hematoma. but the thing that worried me the most was that the distal hole produced a bit green-yellow output. it's not supposed to discharge anything anymore... there's no continuation!!!

so my thoughts are that maybe the distal chopped loop is infected...? what do you guys think? i'm gonna try to get my surgeon on the phone today anyway. but has anyone had his stoma done same way as mine after removing the rectal stump?

during all 3 yrs of having a stoma i never had the tiniest issue with it. but this looks scary. i'm scared that my surgoen's decision about leaving the stoma as it is, is leading to complications and that those will lead me to an addition surgery to get rid of the distal stump and create an end ileo. i just cannot go through more surgery

Hodaya, what a drag. I can understand why you were scared, good that you got some reassurance.

Hopefully you can figure something out... just because some people have this problem chronically, doesn't mean you will, although I understand why you're concerned. Hope the nurse can help too.

no no no, the numbness is completely normal. Mine started with the first surgery and spread down to the bikini incision when I had my rectum removed. I think a tiny bit of sensation might be starting to come back now but I might be imagining it... It is totally normal, there are lots of nerves at the surface of the skin that get interrupted by any kind of surgery. Ask a mom who has had a c-section, most will say they had some numbness around the incision. I'm told whatever sensation you're going to get back will come back within the first year. Kind of weird and annoying sometimes but NOT a sign of any deeper problem

thanks you guys!

thank you too nicecup, but you guys didn't get my main question. i know it is normal to have the numbness after surgery, but my main question was whether blood flow is less good in an area that is numb.

active, you got it, thanks, but how do you know if the blood in the numb area is flowing as good as in not numb areas? i briefly read some and did learn that there are many different reasons for numbness. among them there's a reason of lack of blood flow to the numb area, and a totally different reason could be cuz of nerve damage at that area. it's two different causes. so it could be you are very right, in a case of surgery it's merely nerve damage. anyway, i also asked this a neurologist in her forum :)

I assume that mine is nerve damage as there is healing in that area. I also spent about 1.5 months in the hospital after the surgery and then another week in the hospital three weeks later. With as many times as the doctors looked at my incision and the number of tests I've had (contrast CAT scan) that a blood flow problem would have been caught.

Were they talking about lack of bloodflow like when you get a number hand or foot? That causes lack of sensation. If a part of your body lacked bloodflow for an extended period of time, I assume that it would start to go necrotic.

Hodaya, I didn't forget what disease you had. You probably did have steroids during the surgery. They give everyone a "shock dose" because surgery is so traumatic to the system that you just can't make enough stress hormones to keep up. I'm not sure whether that would have effects or not, but seems like it could, as they are very powerful.