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- Oct 18, 2012
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- 4,557
I've only had my ileostomy a few weeks, and most of that time I was in the hospital and it wasn't functioning, so I've only had a working ileostomy for a little over a week. I was reading other threads and wondering about the amount of output and the timing of output that I'm getting.
My stoma nurse told me most people's ileostomies produce something around an hour after eating, and that they need emptying several times a day. Mine is not like this at all. It seems to go the whole day producing nothing at all, then, usually in the evening, it fills up a couple of times - it gets about half full, I empty it, an hour or so later it's half full again, I empty it again. Even emptying it when it is only half full, I only have to empty it about three times during the evening. I sleep through the night without emptying it at all, and it's usually still empty when I wake up in the morning (and stays that way until the evening).
At first I thought it was because I wasn't eating much, but I'm feel much better and eating more now, and drinking plenty. The output is the thickness and consistency it's supposed to be.
This actually feels like a good thing - the time I spend emptying the bag is minimal - but I was wondering if it's normal. My stoma nurse saw me a couple of days ago and she was very happy with how it's going. I told her the pattern it seems to be following, and she didn't really say anything, she just reiterated that most people find an ileostomy produces output after eating, but wasn't concerned that mine didn't - she said it must be because my remaining digestive tract isn't functioning regularly.
I'm not worried as I feel fine, there's no pain or anything, and, because I had complications following the surgery, while I was in hospital they did several x-rays to check for blockages and also put some kind of tube/camera (I'm not sure, I was making sure I didn't look at what they were doing!) into the stoma and so they're pretty certain it's all fine now that the complications are resolving - I had post-surgical ileus, and though I feel much better now, the doctor said it would take a few months before my digestive system got back to the level of functioning it would be at if it weren't for the ileus (and it didn't function well in the first place).
So is this low level of output and the long times without anything coming out just due to my irregular digestive system, a consequence of the ileus which I'm still getting over, or do other people's ileostomies also function this way?
My stoma nurse told me most people's ileostomies produce something around an hour after eating, and that they need emptying several times a day. Mine is not like this at all. It seems to go the whole day producing nothing at all, then, usually in the evening, it fills up a couple of times - it gets about half full, I empty it, an hour or so later it's half full again, I empty it again. Even emptying it when it is only half full, I only have to empty it about three times during the evening. I sleep through the night without emptying it at all, and it's usually still empty when I wake up in the morning (and stays that way until the evening).
At first I thought it was because I wasn't eating much, but I'm feel much better and eating more now, and drinking plenty. The output is the thickness and consistency it's supposed to be.
This actually feels like a good thing - the time I spend emptying the bag is minimal - but I was wondering if it's normal. My stoma nurse saw me a couple of days ago and she was very happy with how it's going. I told her the pattern it seems to be following, and she didn't really say anything, she just reiterated that most people find an ileostomy produces output after eating, but wasn't concerned that mine didn't - she said it must be because my remaining digestive tract isn't functioning regularly.
I'm not worried as I feel fine, there's no pain or anything, and, because I had complications following the surgery, while I was in hospital they did several x-rays to check for blockages and also put some kind of tube/camera (I'm not sure, I was making sure I didn't look at what they were doing!) into the stoma and so they're pretty certain it's all fine now that the complications are resolving - I had post-surgical ileus, and though I feel much better now, the doctor said it would take a few months before my digestive system got back to the level of functioning it would be at if it weren't for the ileus (and it didn't function well in the first place).
So is this low level of output and the long times without anything coming out just due to my irregular digestive system, a consequence of the ileus which I'm still getting over, or do other people's ileostomies also function this way?
). The stoma output is still predominantly in the evenings, especially right before I go to bed, though sometimes a tiny amount is produced earlier in the day or over night. I'm still only emptying a half-full bag usually twice in the evenings.
