Things To Know About The Stoma

A stoma generally refers to an opening that allows bodily wastes to leave the body. Your surgeon will create a stoma on the digestive or urinary tract to bypass its diseased portion.

Why does a stoma become necessary?

There are several reasons why you may need a stoma. Some of those reasons include the following.

• Bladder cancer
• Bowel cancer
• Crohn’s disease
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Diverticulitis
• Ulcerative colitis
• Obstruction

Depending on the severity or type of the underlying reason, a stoma can be permanent or temporary.

What are the types of stoma?

Based on their location, there are three types of stoma: colostomy, ileostomy, and urostomy. No matter what the type of stoma is, you are going to have to wear a stoma bag to manage waste evacuations. A stoma doesn’t have any sphincters, meaning that waste materials would pass out of it unexpectedly. An ostomy bag worn over the stoma allows you to remain calm and relaxed until the bag is full. You will need to empty or change the bag when necessary.

Now, let’s discuss the types of the stoma.

• The first and most common type of stoma is the colostomy. This ostomy has a stoma on the colon, meaning that waste materials will pass out of the stoma without proceeding to the rest of the colon. The surgeon will give you a colostomy if a part of your colon is too diseased to function.
• The second type of stoma is ileostomy, which involves bypassing the entire colon. The surgeon creates a stoma on the small intestine after removing or resting the colon.
• A stoma created to reroute the flow of urine towards an opening in the abdomen is known as a urostomy. This stoma connects ureters to the outside of the body. This diversion uses a piece of the small intestine, also known as an ileal conduit, as a channel to transport urine from ureters to the opening in the abdomen.

Preparing for stoma surgery

Before surgery, you will have a meeting or two with a colorectal surgeon and ostomy care nurse. During this preoperative assessment appointment, the surgeon will tell you everything related to surgery and about post-surgery life. The nurse will show you samples of ostomy bags.

During this meeting, you should ask anything that confuses you. You may want to prepare a list of questions that you would ask your surgeon.

Stoma care support

You will not feel and remember anything that happened during surgery, as you will be under the influence of general anesthesia.

After surgery, you will need to stay in the hospital for 3-10 days. It is the postoperative critical recovery phase during which your doctor and surgical staff will monitor your ostomy. If the recovery process goes well, you will be allowed to go back home.

The overall recovery after surgery will take 6-8 weeks. During this period, you will need to make sure to follow every restriction related to your diet and physical movement. Generally, your doctor will ask you to take soft foods until your body recovers. You will not be able to lift heavy objects during this time. You can introduce your favorite foods back into your diet and return to your fitness training regimen once your body recovers.

Living in a New Way

Life is never quite so easy when you have to live in a different sort of way. And all things considered, that could be a slew of different reasons, such as living in a more poverty stricken area, having less income, having a disability, or   even having some sort of calamity strike your life.

So imagine your life as it is right now. Imagine what all you’ve got among your family, your friend sphere, the pets you love, the things you enjoy doing. No matter how bad off you feel your life is, someone absolutely has it worse. So it’s worth rethinking what you’re sad about or upset about in your life, because it could always be worse than it currently is.

And that’s the beauty of looking at life from a positive perspective. When you realize what all you’ve got going for yourself, it’s truly hard to be upset with the little things that seem annoying.  Or instead of asking “Why me?”, ask “What will tomorrow bring?” It’s amazing how such a small shift in thinking can truly alter the way you view things in your life.

And that’s why it is absolutely so important to keep in mind how anything “bad” can strike any day of the week. Any day of your life, things could go south. You may have to have some sort of emergency procedure, like an ostomy, where everything suddenly changes and you’ve got to rethink how you do basic human functions, like go to the bathroom or even shower. Changing out ostomy supplies is more time consuming than you would imagine (though truthfully it’s not that bad once you’ve got the hang of it).

Nonetheless, cleaning your ostomy supplies takes a little learning, so it’s important to key on your tactics and your time management to allow for a comfortable fitting pouching system and ensuring that everything is sealed skin tight.

So instead of bemoaning your life and what’s currently going awry, think about what all you’ve got. Even if what you have isn’t much, that sort of mentality is literally what brings success to so many professionals, because they’re always extremely focused on what’s next, what they can acquire next. And once you’ve learned to see the world this way, you’ll never go back to your old ways of worrying and complaining about the minutiae. A perspective shift can do your world wonders, honestly. But it’s up to you to change it.

Emergency Preparedness Guide for Ostomates

You may already be familiar with the concept of emergency preparedness. And if you live in an area which is prone to any particular type of emergency, you may already have done something for you and your family to deal with that emergency condition. The immediate aftermath of an emergency can created a situation which might include disruption in electricity, water, and shipping. It means that you might have to live without certain things you depend upon in your daily life. That is the reason that you need to have an emergency preparedness solution comprising of flashlight, water storage, and power generation solutions. But what if you have a medical condition; such as an ostomy? This condition is a whole new reason why you need to be prepared for any emergency situation.

The emergency preparedness requirements for ostomates are all about gathering all of the important supplies that can provide a backup for a minimum number of days until the emergency situation is over. You cannot really go out during an emergency situation to get your supplies. You cannot wait for your shipments to arrive because shipping services do not enter into the areas that are hit by weather and several other types of emergencies. That is why you need to have everything you require to take care of your ostomy during an emergency situation.

So the question here is; how much is the minimum amount of supplies that you need to have in your ostomy emergency kit? Well, it is certainly a good idea to have at least 3 weeks’ worth of supplies in that kit. And you need to maintain this kit especially when you need these items to be shipped to you. You need to have a preemptive approach if you are living in east or west coast because it normally takes 7 business days for your items to be shipped to you. So 3 weeks is certainly not a lot of time.

Emergency ostomy supplies

• Since you will be in the need of quicker solutions, you need to have cut-to-fit ostomy bags to meet your needs for 3 weeks.
• A stoma opening hole cutter or scissors
• Waterproof plastic bin to hold all of your supplies comfortably
• Water for cleaning
• Skin cleanser; make sure that it doesn’t include added oils or fragrance
• Ostomy pouch liners
• Ostomy disposal bags
• Adhesive remover solutions
• Skin prep wipes
• Exam gloves

Remember, your preparedness is not all about maintaining the supplies. Rather, you will need to be ready to handle the emergency. You should have written documentation of your medical condition. You can refer to this information to treat yourself because any emergency preparedness involves preparation for the scenario in which the networks are down and you do not have access to medical specialists.

Odor Reducing Solutions for Your Ostomy

It is pretty normal to be concerned about the odor when you have an ostomy to take care of; not because an ostomy odor is a real problem, but due to the fact that it has to deal with the excretion of your bodily wastes without you knowing about it. The pouching system is there to collect the wastes. And there is no reason for an odor emitting from you when that pouching system is properly attached to your body.

Remember, your ostomy is not something to be ashamed of. It is actually a life-saving procedure which is meant to help you to be healthy and active again. As far as the odor is concerned, there are very rare chances for the other people to feel a smell coming out of the area where you have kept the pouch unless you are handling the pouching system in the wrong way which might cause the leakage of stomal output and moisture. But if you are still concerned about the smell even after taking care of everything in the right manner, there are odor reducing methods that can surely help you avoid getting overly self-conscious.

There are certain odor eliminator products that you can use.

Different ways to control ostomy pouch odor

M9 Odor Eliminator Drops

You can add a few, 10 – 12, drops of m9 drops into the fresh pouch before putting it on. Using this odor eliminator is actually a preemptive action that you do in order reduce the odor before even it is generated. You can use these drops with both colostomy and ileostomy. You can use these drops whether you are wearing a one-piece ostomy bag or a two-piece ostomy pouch.

M9 Odor Eliminator Spray

This odor eliminator spray works really well anytime when you need to refresh the environment of your room. So, it is a product which you can use not only to reduce the ostomy odor but also whenever you need to deodorize the environment around you. The best thing about this product is that it doesn’t come with any scent that can mask the smell. It actually kills the odor.