Skip to main content

Leaky bottom

Today I have had a lot of stool passing out my back passage. Because it's passing through my pouch it gives me terrible tummy ache. 

Now before you wonder whether a miracle has occurred overnight I need to explain how this happens. 

I generally tell people that in my next operation I will 'get joined back up' but in actual fact I am joined up right now. 

The picture shows the 2 different types of ileostomy or stoma that I have had (sorry about the picture, nicked it from a google search! It must be of a man cause there's a lot of hair shown there!!)


The end ileostomy was what I had for 4 years after my large bowel was removed. Everything that goes in your mouth passes out the end of the stoma. 

In a loop ileostomy (which is what I have at the moment) a piece of small bowel is pulled through the abdominal wall and it has 2 openings (imagine splitting a hose pipe open)


The majority of stool passes through one opening and goes into the stoma bag. Some stool can pass through into the second opening and then passes through the rest of the small bowel, into the j pouch and out of the rectum. 

In my next operation (or takedown as it's technically known) this stoma will be pushed back into my body and the hole sewn up meaning that everything I eat comes out in the same way as 'normal' people. 

So that's why today I've had a leaky bottom and tummy ache. I don't know why sometimes it passes through and other times it doesn't but hey, that's the mystery of having insides outside! 

To help with the leaky bottom situation I have to use tena pads. Luckily a friend had a huge supply of them after her Mum passed away so she gave them to me which has saved me from having to suffer the embarrassment of actually buying them in Tesco!

The kids call them 'the Mummy nappies' and they think it's quite funny that I have to wear them. I have to say though they are much better than the ones they give to you in hospital. 

To give you an idea of sizes the photo below shows the hospital pad, the tena pad and a normal sanitary pad. 


Can you see the things I have to put up with! It's not just about having a stoma bag but all the other things that go with it. I often say that they took my dignity along with my large bowel as things like this become part of normal conversations and daily life. At least they left my sense of humour though cause without that this would really be unbearable!

NB x



Labels:

Comments

  1. Florence29 July 2021 at 13:58

    Nice post. Well what can I say is that these is an interesting and very informative topic on ostomy knickers

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Light at the end of tunnel

I’m sat writing this blog post in St Marks, the specialist bowel hospital in London. So much has happened in the last few weeks; it’s all been a bit of a whirlwind. But I finally feel like there is some hope at the end of the tunnel. Let me tell you why.  At the beginning of June I was admitted yet again to QMC in Nottingham with huge amounts of pain, my bowels not working properly and just feeling generally unwell. I had only been home a couple of weeks since the admission in May but I had been feeling so rubbish most of my time had been spent in bed. I had tried everything I could to stay at home but the pain had become so bad I was barely able to stand or take a few steps on my own.  I had expected to maybe be in for a week or two to get stronger pain meds and get back on my feet but I ended up being in for almost a month. They put me on morphine injections and ketamine but then stopped them when my heart rate dropped to 30 beats per minute and my breathing to 7 breaths a minute. Th
Post a Comment
Read more

The light at the end of the tunnel is a train

Last week was a busy and pretty crappy week for me health wise. I had to go and have blood tests done with the nutrition nurses and I had two hospital appointments; one with the gallbladder surgeon in Nottingham and the other with colorectal surgeon at St Marks. I was hoping to have at least one surgery date to write in the diary following these appointments but I came home empty handed on both occasions. Here’s what happened.  I began noticing over the last few weeks that I’ve started feeling really crappy. I’m feel lucky to have been at home for the last 6 months and I have been the most well I have been for years but it felt like things had shifted slightly recently but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. But years of being sick means I know my body and I can tell when something isn’t right. I have been feeling permanently exhausted and having way more bad days than good. I’ve gone back to spending 2, 3 or more consecutive days in bed, unable to do anything but watch tv and sleep.
Post a Comment
Read more

The wrong size line

I’m on the M1 heading back to Nottingham after a road trip to St Marks to get my line repaired. But this is me, and as usual it wasn’t a smooth ride. More like a bloody shit show. So what happened? Let me tell you… After being admitted to QMC in Nottingham on Sunday with a broken Hickman line I was taken down to Interventional Radiology on Monday afternoon to get my line repaired. Firstly, I couldn’t believe it was happening so quickly and secondly I didn’t want to get too excited because, well it’s me, and usually things don’t go according to plan. And sadly I right to rein in the excitement.  When the doctor came to consent me for the procedure it was for a replacement, not a repair. I assumed he had made a mistake so I told him I was there to get my line repaired and was definitely not there for a new one. He looked at me and said “I hate to be the bearer of bad news…” and that’s a sentence that never bodes well. He then went on to say that they didn’t have any repair kits and that
1 comment
Read more