- Joined
- Oct 18, 2012
- Messages
- 4,557
I mean literally. I woke up this morning, and I felt gas coming through my stoma, as it usually does, but it felt more like it did right after the surgery, just a bit uncomfortable each time a bubble came out. Got up, had a shower. Took the bag off... my stoma is gone. There was just a small red patch, completely flat on my stomach. 
And faeceal matter and gas is coming out of the flat red patch. :eek2:
I start yelling for my dad (my mum was out). He tells me to stop panicking
It's too early to ring the stoma nurse, there's no way I'm going to A&E if I can possibly avoid it, so I ring the NHS 111 line (a helpline where you speak to medical professionals and they tell you whether you should go to hospital, whether you should see your GP, or whatever).
The clinician I speak to doesn't know what a stoma is. :yrolleyes: He guesses I should probably go to the emergency department.
Luckily it is 9:00am by now so I ring my lovely helpful stoma nuses.
They (I was speaking to two at the same time - the one who answered the phone and my regular stoma nurse whom the first nurse went to get when I told her who I was) explain to me that stomas retract sometimes and it's nothing to worry about. They arranged for me to come in tomorrow morning so they can check and reassure me that's what has happened.
Why did no-one tell me before that this could happen?! It would have saved me almost having a heart-attack this morning. It's like waking up to find you're missing a leg or something. :yfaint:
(Though to be honest the main worry on my mind was that I was going to have to go to hospital. I was more worried about having to go see doctors than I was concerned that something was wrong with my stoma.)
And faeceal matter and gas is coming out of the flat red patch. :eek2:I start yelling for my dad (my mum was out). He tells me to stop panicking
It's too early to ring the stoma nurse, there's no way I'm going to A&E if I can possibly avoid it, so I ring the NHS 111 line (a helpline where you speak to medical professionals and they tell you whether you should go to hospital, whether you should see your GP, or whatever).
The clinician I speak to doesn't know what a stoma is. :yrolleyes: He guesses I should probably go to the emergency department.
Luckily it is 9:00am by now so I ring my lovely helpful stoma nuses.
They (I was speaking to two at the same time - the one who answered the phone and my regular stoma nurse whom the first nurse went to get when I told her who I was) explain to me that stomas retract sometimes and it's nothing to worry about. They arranged for me to come in tomorrow morning so they can check and reassure me that's what has happened.
Why did no-one tell me before that this could happen?! It would have saved me almost having a heart-attack this morning. It's like waking up to find you're missing a leg or something. :yfaint:
(Though to be honest the main worry on my mind was that I was going to have to go to hospital. I was more worried about having to go see doctors than I was concerned that something was wrong with my stoma.)
