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.

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.