Surgical repair of a deeply recessed stoma?

After a year of treatment for rectal cancer, my husband had his ileostomy take down on Dec. 7th. We survived a horrifying 7 1/2 weeks of horrible bloating and complete incontinence since then due to severe stricture and a fistula. I ended up taking him to the ER almost completely malnourished and dehydrated. He was diverted once again last week on Feb. 1st.

I have been the absolute queen of ostomy care, surpassing all the nurses on the floor and even both of our ostomy nurses. (I'm an artist and product designer, so I'm used to cut and paste.) HOWEVER! His colostomy stoma is so deep, that since the surgery, it has been impossible to get anything to work. One side has a very deep hole and I just can't see this ending well... I have tried EVERYTHING and have scoured the internet for solutions. We are really loosing our minds. It seems to be getting deeper and now his skin is so raw that I have him laying on the sofa 'commando' just to try to get the area to air out and heal a bit. The appliances are barely lasting an hour. My husband looks worse now than he has all year and is loosing weight daily. He's an athlete but he's afraid to even walk for fear that it will leak again. I haven't been able to find any viable solutions so here are my questions...

1. Do these recessed stoma's ever move further up to the surface?
2. Has anyone ever heard of a revision to fix severely retracted stoma's?
3. If so, would a plastic surgeon work with a gastrointestinal surgeon to repair this problem?

IDK, we welcome any suggestions at this point. We went to the best surgeon in the country and we're just puzzled as to how he could let a patient leave his OR with this sloppy job. I'm wondering if a resident actually did the surgery?

Also, my husband is thin, so the problem is not due to excess belly fat. We had zero problems with his ileostomy, which didn't look anything like this.

Thank you for any insight that you could give us!

Thank you!

ENIGMAWRAP said...
MayDay82 - I replied to bump this up on the forum notes. As far as "re-doing" a stoma, yes I've met people who have had that operation performed. And, If I were you, I'd look for another surgeon/second opinion, as I wouldn't want the same surgeon to cut another part of my abdomen.

As far as appliances, you may need to talk directly with convatec, or hollister to find a wafer that will attach and "perk up" the stoma so the leaking is not as bad.

Thanks so much for responding! I posted this on the ulcerative colitis forum as 3TimeChamp had recommended and received some great advice.

We met with our senior ostomy nurse on Monday and she WAS able to 'work a fix' as suggested by our surgeon. It's held for 4 days now but she said that we should absolutely question our surgeon because this is NOT a permanent stoma. If my husband decides that he's just going to give up the fight and live with this, it will need to be revised. She's worked with our world-class surgeon for over 30 years and reminded us that with the severity of his cancer, any other doctor would have removed his sphincter and slapped a permanent bag and not even given us a chance to try a takedown. He has a number of hurdles to cross before we try for a second time.

I haven't done a change yet, so hopefully I'll be successful as well. She told me I'm looking for a 24 hour success rate... We got a box of new supplies today, including skin adhesive, so at least we're prepared.