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

Caravan wankers

Over the last few years when I was stuck in hospital for long periods of time Hubby and I would talk about what we would do if I ever got ‘better’. During some of those times when I was so, so poorly the idea of just being at home for more than a few weeks at a time seemed like a far fetched dream. But I’m currently living that dream! And obviously I know I will never ‘get better’ but for these purposes ‘getting better’ meant being well enough to be at home, not in pain 24/7 and not in bed all day, every day. Not too much to ask now is it??  So in our talks, once I was at home and was well enough to do the real basic things like watch Big Fella play football, Big Girl play netball, go to Tesco, play with the dog, go to the cinema etc one thing kept cropping up. We would love to have a motor home and tour round the country. We talked about the places we would like to visit, how much Buddy the dog would love it and how it would give us a chance to reconnect with each other.  But after a
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

One year anniversary

  Today marks two important milestones: firstly my Hickman line is 1 year old and I have managed to stay out of hospital for a year too! I think this is the first Hickman line I’ve had that has made it to its first birthday, so this is quite a big deal. Most people have their lines in for years and years with no problems but in the past mine have blocked, split or become infected causing me to rack up a grand total of 17 lines in 10 years. But maybe my luck is changing… And the fact I’ve been at home without any inpatient hospital stays for a whole year is a milestone I didn’t think I would see.  2019-2023 was a particularly difficult four years where on average I spent more time in hospital than I did at home. And even when I was at home I was so ill I couldn’t get out of bed. There were some times during that period when I didn’t think I would live to see another Christmas because I was so, so unwell and I couldn’t see how I would ever recover. It was a long, hard slog and there were
Post a Comment
Read more