Good luck to you, blueglass.
I haven't shared this yet, but last Wednesday [yeah, the day before Thanksgiving] I had to have an unexpected surgery to correct a peristomal hernia.
Like you, I had been having episodes at home but had always been able to work them out with our little list of things to do for a blockage. Well, a week ago Sunday nothing I did was working so for the first time since surgery, off to the ER I went with one of my "little" blockage episodes.
They did a cat scan and said I had loops of intestine around my stoma. Scared me with talk of revision, etc, and then transferred me to the hospital where I had my surgery so my surgeon could assess what I would need.
He left it up to me if I wanted surgery while there or come back after Christmas. I said, I am here, lets just do it and get it over with. Mine was fairly simple. There was a small
opening in the muscle right beside, under, or around my stoma [not 100% sure] and a piece of intestine made it's way through. Not a big area or lots of loops, as I was originally told. Still, I was at risk for a strangulation if left unattended since it was a small
opening.
He cut a C around the outer area beyond where the pouch goes and just laid back the skin & stoma. Poked the intestine back through and then stitched up the muscle closing the hole and reinforcing the area. Laid the hunk of skin back over and stitched it up. Thank goodness I kept my original stoma because she is a beauty and has worked so well for me.
Still abdominal surgery, and not pain free, but nothing like the other 2. I am getting along fine and hope I won't have any more issues. I will be more in tune to any blockages though.
Keep us posted.
P.S. I did cave and let them do the NG tube which I said I would never do again unless I was near death. It wasn't as bad this time as the first time, but I will have to be near death before I ever let them do it again
