Things You May Want To Know About A Colostomy

An opening in the abdomen to allow the large bowel to connect to the outside of the body is known as a colostomy. The purpose of this diversion is to allow bodily wastes to leave the body without proceeding to the diseased part of the bowel. Because a colostomy lets you retain a section of your bowel, the stool you pass out from the stoma is formed, but it might vary in some cases.

There are two types of colostomy: end colostomy and loop colostomy.

End colostomy

The surgeon will give you an end colostomy after removing a part of your bowel. He will bring the end of the active GI tract through the abdominal wall to create a stoma. Depending on the underlying reason and its severity, the end colostomy can be permanent or temporary.

The surgeon will create a temporary end colostomy to give the diseased part of the colon some rest to recover from the disease. The recovery duration may extend to a few weeks, a few months, or even a few years.

Loop colostomy

The surgeon may choose to give you a loop colostomy due to a bowel obstruction. The ostomy will stop the waste from proceeding to the problem area of the colon. The procedure to create this type of colostomy involves pulling out of a loop of the colon. The surgeon will make a small incision on the top of that loop. This incision will open two ends, one of which evacuates bodily wastes, while the second one connects to the diseased part of the colon along with the rectum and anus. The location of a loop stoma can vary depending on the location of the infection.

Reasons for a colostomy

There can be various reasons you may need a colostomy. Your nurse and surgeon will explain the procedure and everything related to ostomy care.

Here are some of the reasons why you may need a colostomy.

• Diverticulitis
• Crohn’s disease
• Bowel incontinence
• Trauma
• Cancer
• Congenital abnormalities
• Damage due to radiation

How does a stoma look and feel like?

Generally, a stoma should be a little protruded from the surface of the abdominal skin. It is soft, moist, and red or pink. The overall appearance of the stoma is pretty much like the inside of the mouth.

The stoma doesn’t have any nerve endings, meaning that you won’t feel anything while touching or rubbing it. With a rich blood supply, it, however, may bleed easily. A stoma can bleed when you clean it, so it shouldn’t be a cause of concern unless there is excessive bleeding.

The stoma may be swollen during the first few weeks after surgery. This swelling can result in an enlarged stoma, but it should reduce in size over time. The stoma will have some stitches around it, but they generally dissolve with time.

Conclusion

A colostomy is a life-saving procedure that generally makes the stoma a permanent feature of the body. If you have this stoma, you have to make sure to take good care of it. A significant part of ostomy care involves taking care of the peristomal skin. Healthy peristomal skin ensures a leak-proof seal between the peristomal skin and the skin barrier.

If you face any issues related to ostomy care, you may want to discuss them with your ostomy care nurse.

A Brief Introduction of Colostomy and Types of Colostomy

What is Colostomy Surgery?

When doctors remove a small portion of the colon and bring the other part of the large intestine to the abdomen wall to create a stoma, it is called colostomy surgery.

The stoma (an artificial hole in the belly wall) needs a container or bag to collect the stool. A colostomy surgeon removes a small part of the colon (large intestine) that is injured or infected and connects the other part to the stoma. The patients who are suffering from colon cancer, colon injury, acute gastrointestinal pain, IBD or poor performance of the large intestine need colostomy surgery. It is a lifesaving surgery for cancer patients.

Why a Person Needs Colostomy Surgery?

A colostomy is a common type of ostomy surgery. It belongs to the disease and treatment of large intestine and bowel. Through the colostomy surgery, surgeons create a new path of pooping. When a patient needs the operation, it means his natural process of discharging feces is not working. Therefore, he needs a stoma to excrete the waste. The large intestine absorbs the watery solution from the stool and saves it until the movement of the bowel happens. If the large intestine (colon) cannot perform these functions, the person needs treatment.

The function of the large intestine (colon) is to convert the unused food into feces. It receives all the unabsorbed food from the small intestine. The large intestine has to absorb water, nutrients, electrolytes, and some specific vitamins. When a person goes through the ostomy surgery, the feces cannot reach rectum and anus, after passing through the process of the small intestine (ileum) and large intestine (colon), it directly goes to the stoma.

Types of the Colostomy Surgery

The kind of surgery can be identified through the location of the stoma in every colostomy surgery.

The following are the types of colostomy:

•  Ascending Colostomy.
• Transverse Colostomy
• Descending or Sigmoid Colostomy.

Ascending Colostomy

When the stoma appears on the right side of the abdomen in the result of colostomy, it is an ascending colostomy. In this type of surgery, the discharge is very liquid. The thin liquid discharge is uncontrollable in the initial few days of the operation. Because of that, patients wear a reusable or drainable stoma bag. The discharge can happen at any time and four to five times a day. That is why you need to take care of your stoma, peristomal odor, and pouch.

Transverse Colostomy

When there is a colostomy in the upper right or the middle of the abdomen, then it is a transverse colostomy surgery. The primary causes of the transverse colostomy are diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, blocks, injury or birth defects in the colon (large intestine). After this operation, feces do not reach to the descending colon, before getting to the descending large intestine, the stool comes out through the stoma.

Descending or Sigmoid Colostomy

Doctors perform descending colostomy on the lower left side of the abdomen. The stool is firm when there is sigmoid surgery. It is the most often performed colostomy operation. The feces of the descendent colostomy do not have caustic enzyme content. Therefore, it discharges the solid and regulated waste. In this type of colostomy, the stool comes out at regular intervals. Thus, you can know your excretion timings. You can use a disposable stoma bag for a sigmoid colostomy. As it does not discharge the liquid stool, you have to clean the peristomal once a day. You do not have worries about frequent discharge and smell. However, in the case of constipation, you need to visit your doctor.

Some Other Types of Colostomies based on Construction

The following are the types of colostomies identified through the way of construction:

•                    Hartman’s Colostomy.

•                    Loop Colostomy.

•                    Double barrel Colostomy.

•                    Spectacle Colostomy.

Process of Draining and Cleaning the Ostomy Pouch

For new ostomates, several queries come to their minds regarding hygiene, draining, and cleaning of the ostomy pouch, work-life, intimacy, sports, and many more. Your doctor and nurse guide you thoroughly about your every activity. You will be able to wash, drain, and change your ostomy bag on your own; however, it needs some practice. You should adopt pertinent techniques to do your ostomy tasks without any help.

When a patient goes through the ostomy surgery, he knows the importance of ostomy pouch and other accessories. Doctors create an unnatural process of excreting urine or feces in a human’s body. For this, they construct a stoma in the belly wall of the patient. The stoma is on the outer side of the lower abdomen. It could be on the lower left or right side of the tummy. It depends on the type of ostomy surgery (urostomy, ileostomy, colostomy). For stoma, a patient needs some appropriate and significant accessories like stoma pouch, adhesive, wraps, flanges, skincare, deodorants, belt, and many more.

An ostomy patient should manage their physical health to control the quality of life. To cope up with the ostomy days, one should know how to do care for their peristomal skin, how to drain the stoma pouch, and how to clean it? Taking caring and managing your ostomy life is necessary to raise your quality of life and follow your previous life.

Accept the Stoma in your Life

Well, ostomy surgeries change the life of a person completely. After the operation, one has to adopt a new lifestyle. He has to follow the medical rules to run his days. One should adopt the living with a stoma after the ostomy. The first and foremost step is to accept the stoma and purpose of the stoma in your life.

You should adopt the new procedure of excretion. You should accept that now your natural process has changed, and you need to let out the poop and peep through an artificial path. A stoma is a new partner in your life. If you have had a temporary ostomy operation, then you have to bear with the stoma for a few months. However, if you have had a permanent surgery, then you should adopt the new lifestyle for the rest of your life.

Some patients have problems in adopting new life accessories and accepting the stoma. However, by the time, and listening to the guidance of your nurse and doctors, gradually, you will be able to follow the new paths of life. Once you get used to it, you will have no problem doing your all activities with the stoma.

Ostomy Pouch/Bag

When you use a disposable ostomy pouch, you can throw it away after the use. Once the bag is filled with the waste, you just need to get rid of the used ostomy pouch and apply the new one.

The reusable ostomy pouch is drainable and washable. You can clean it and reuse it. You can empty the waste matter from the bag, clean it, and apply it again on the peristomal. You need to empty the feces or urine in a bedpan. Hold the one end of the stoma pouch and throw away the matter in the bedpan. Clean it and reuse the pouch. Moreover, you should use a dry stoma pouch or dry peristomal skin.

A Few Essential Tips on Draining and Cleaning the Ostomy Pouch

The following are some necessary tips:

•  Always apply a dry pouch on the dry skin.
• If your stoma bag is not dry yet, use another a new and dry pouch until the used one gets dry.
• Always use a soft toilet paper or a piece of cloth to dry your skin.
• Do not ignore the bleeding from the stoma after a few days of the surgery.
• Use ostomy deodorant and spray to get rid of the bad odor.
• Always keep an ostomy kit in your bag while traveling, shopping, or outing.
• When the ostomy pouch is 1/3th full, empty it. Do not wait to get to full.
• After changing the stoma bag, wipe off the sides of the stoma.

Trucking Incident Caused Ostomy

I have been a truck driver for over 20 years. Ever since I was little, I’ve always had a great fascination with big machines and heavy equipment. I enjoyed watching trucks and semi-trailers blundering along the highways whenever I went on big trips with my family and was always curious about truck driver’s seemingly nomadic and straightforward lifestyle. I began my career working for a construction company, where I drove different types of trucks carrying different types of cargo to construction sites all over the midwest. I have hauled just about every type of material needed for building and developing construction, sand, concrete, steel, lumber, gravel, etc. This was an excellent job for me for a while, but I began to take more interest in different types of trucking.

A few years later, I found myself working for a Walmart as one of their merchandise delivery truckers. This involved transporting various non-perishable goods from Walmart warehouses to the actual supercenters in towns and cities all over the country. The hours of driving got longer, and I felt much more fatigued by the end of my long trips and, at times, would simply be sick of driving. However, the pay was good, and I enjoyed the benefits that came with the position.  I found myself driving all over the country and seeing parts of the United States that I had never been to before. The only downside was that I couldn’t usually afford to stop anywhere and sight-see for too long; this was especially unfortunate when I came across national parks or interesting cities that I very much wanted to explore. 

One night I was driving through the northern side of Colorado up into Montana when I got into my first serious trucking accident. It was a rainy night, and the visibility was poor. I found myself driving well under the speed limit in order to feel comfortable with the weather conditions and with the load I was carrying at the time. Out of nowhere, I began to hydroplane across the road and well into the left lane of the interstate. To avoid hitting the car driving just to the left of my driver ’s-side door, I swerved back to the right, which can only be described as a classic overcorrection. I went completely off the road and started to tumble down a small hill and into a small clump of trees. I remember feeling like I was floating in my seat as the cab kept spinning and turning down the hill, until eventually coming to an ugly halt as I came into contact with the trees.

From the accident, I found myself with a torn lower intestine that the doctors described as irreparable. I had an ostomy performed a couple of weeks after the incident, and now I will live the rest of my life with a physical reminder of that night on the road. Living with an ostomy required an adjutant to many different parts of my life, especially with the foods that I can eat. I had to change a lot about my daily habits and try to structure things around having an ostomy. I still drive trucks to this day and have not allowed myself to be impaired from things I enjoy in life because of my ostomy.

Paintball with ostomy

Life has been pretty good, if I must say. I am surrounded by so many good people being my family and friends, as well as my paintball team. A few years ago, I had a drastic injury that changed my life. I had to get a permanent colostomy procedure due to the extent of my injuries. It was life-altering at first, but once I was able to get back on my feet and figure everything out, I realized my life is no different than it was before, other than I have to carry around a bag that contains my bodily waste. It is not a pleasant thought or topic to discuss, but many people have them, so there is no need to be afraid of it. 

When I had just graduated from high school, and some of my friends and I went to Florida to celebrate. One thing we did not check to see was if there were sharks in the area since we loved to surf along with play paintball. When we arrived in Florida, we spend the whole next day playing at an amazing speedball field, and we had so much fun. We do not have these kinds of fields by us back home. To end the day, we decided to go surfing. Even though most of us were exhausted, we wanted to spend the evening watching a sunset on our boards. As we were paddling out, my friend said he had thought he had seen a shark but was not sure. The next thing I know, I’m getting launched five feet in the air with a shark’s jaws fixed to either side of my abdomen. I immediately began hitting the shark on the nose and eye, and it let me go but not before taking some of my intestines with it. 

I woke up in the hospital surrounded by my friends and the doctor. As soon as he saw I was awake, he asked me how I was doing and the steps that needed to be taken if I wanted to live everyday life. He said I would need to get a permanent colostomy procedure immediately. He told me all that it entailed and what I would look like once it was over. I told him to proceed. 

When I woke up from my procedure, I was again surrounded by my friends, and this time my family was there too. I told them not to worry as I am alright and there is nothing to worry about. Shortly after my procedure, I asked my doctor if I could still play paintball. He told me no, not unless I get some form of protection for my ostomy, and I almost immediately grabbed my phone to begin researching. I was able to find one and was ecstatic. I still play paintball to this day. My team is almost undefeated in every tournament we have played. I get the satisfaction of knowing that the people we beat got beat by a disabled guy. 

As a paintballer with an ostomy, there are a few things I can not do, so I primarily play in the back. I have to be careful as not to hurt my ostomy stoma as that could be bad. I love paintball, and I am glad to have it in my life as it helps me forget about my situation. I am surrounded by so many supportive friends and family, and I do not want to let them down.