New stoma

[poolside]

new stoma

I know it's still early, but I'm no newbie to abdominal surgery and this is getting me down bad...Had surgery 9 days ago, ended up with a honkin verticle incision plus colostomy. The incision pain is getting better, I can feel it healing up, but the stoma is still very painful.
When you guys were post op, how long before the pain subsided with stoma? Did you find that the stoma pain was worse than the incision pain? Honestly if it was just the giant incision healing up right now I'd be ready to take on the world, but Ouch, stupid stoma!!!
Once this thing heals up, will there be absolutely no pain around the stoma, or do you have pain there from time to time? I'm frustrated and need someone to tell me the pain is going to go away...
Eating what I want with no adverse effects has been a bit of a treat, and normally I am a very positive person, but so far, I hate this with everything I have...

 

[CDDad]

Hi Poolside,
I have an Ileostomy, but I hope it's a close enough experience. I had no pain from my ostomy after surgery. I had plenty of pain from the two Proctocolectomy incisions, but never any I can remember from the stoma. Maybe the skin was a bit tender for 2 weeks while it healed, but no pain.

Can you describe the pain? Is it when stool passes? Or just from the skin / muscles around the stoma? Colostomies can be much larger than Ileostomies, so maybe that is the difference.

 

[poolside]

Hi Joe,

I would have to say it's both when stool passes and also muscular around the stoma. It's especially bad when I'm a bit tired. THis morning, it's just sore, but tonight, it'll hurt like heck when I'm worn out from the day. The 15 cm incision I have is basically just a discomfort now, the dinky hole for the colostomy is what's killin me. Frustrated...
Thanks

 

[mario]

I think you should have it checked for blockage. I found mine was very painful when it was 'working'. Thankfully i didn't have it for very long but when i went for my reversal i was told it should not have been painful at all, and it was probably partially blocked.

 

[ameslouise]

I'm with Joe - tons of incision pain in the abdo and from the anus stitch up but never any stoma pain.

Check with Cindy (Nyx) - she has a colostomy and might be able to give you some advice.

Good luck with your recovery. I hope things get better soon! Do you have a visiting nurse? Call him/her or you surgeon on Monday - better safe than sorry to report something out of the ordinary.

- Amy

 

[Nyx]

I have a colostomy as well (got it about a year and a half ago), and I don't recall having pain around my stoma site at all. There was pain from the incision, but even that abated after about 4 days. I'd definitely talk to your doctor or surgeon about it and have it checked out. Do you have any swelling or is it red around the site? Another possibility is a hernia. Are the stitches still in as well? Perhaps they're causing you some pain when you put your appliance on? Or, maybe the hole in your flange is too small?

I sometimes get pain when I pass alot of stool, but it's definitely not unbearable...it's more like a warning signal to me to get ready to empty my bag...lol

I hope you get it sorted out and start feeling better!

 

[poolside]

I am def gonna bring it up with my surgeon this week, I have a follow-up. My nurse visits Tuesday and I'll also ask her about it.
A little swollen still, no redness, even in the hospital when the pain meds would kick in, all the pain would go away everywhere except the stoma.
Thanks again for the replies, you know, I'm not a complainer and probably would have went for my followup with the "suck it up and smile" attitude. Now I'll be sure to bring it up to him.

 

[Terriernut]

Poolside, my stoma hurt badly, but found out it was the stitches! They didnt disolve and had to be removed. Ouch!

Also, I still have pain, but I have what they call dehisense. My skin separating from the stoma. Its cause I do too much walking, etc with my job. Also, from doing too much too soon, Stan grew, shrunk, grew, shrunk. Hell that hurt.

You really need to speak to the stoma nurse and Dr. They should be there to help you!! Good luck and keep us posted.

Misty and Stan

 

[poolside]

Hi Misty,
Do you mean you did too much walking too soon after the surgery? I have been pretty active, pushing it a bit hard. Today was actually much better, I took it really easy.
It also hasn't been "active" much today, so hmmm.
And the saga continues lol.

 

[Keona]

Hey neighbour..
I cant offer any help with this as i don't have one but I wanted to wish you a speedy recovery!

Cheers

 

[Terriernut]

Poolside, I did too much WORKING too soon for my 50 year old body to cope with. I went back to the busiest site possible. Bad idea.

But yes, take it easy for heavens sake.

Misty

 

[Kris]

The only stoma pain I had was stitch pain too. I had a few that didn't disolve and it felt a whole lot better once they were removed. Hope you are getting better!

 

[poolside]

Well went for followup and he said it's a normal pain due to my ab muscles trying to contract around the stoma. That sounds about right to me. He said it will get better over time, I just have to be patient. The pain is easing up a bit. The more I rest the better I feel. Who knew? lol

 

[ameslouise]

I hear ya. I had hideous ab muscle pain around my stoma. It felt like i had done a thousand sit ups. Sneezing from allergies didn't help!

Glad it turned out to be "nothing" - or, nothing serious I should say!

- Amy

 

[Kris]

Take it easy and don't do too much. I think you can really screw up your ab muscles if you do too much. My friend had a tummy tuck and got too active too soon, and damaged something. She said it didn't look right afterwards.

 

[poolside]

It's getting to be much better now. What a relief, I was terrified this pain wasn't ever going to leave. It's still sensive and that could be due to the fact that I have a slight skin irritation that I am working on but other than that I can see that this pain is going to go away.
Ahhhhhh...

 

[ameslouise]

Glad to hear things are picking up!!!

 

[CDDad]

Well that's good news!