Emergency Surgery resulting in stoma

[Ewife]

Hello, my Dad had emergency surgery yesterday due to a complete blockage of the bowel caused by a lesion. This is a complete shock to us as although he had been feeling ill for a week or so and Gp was just starting investigation, we didnt even know he had a lesion.They had to remove most of his large bowel and some of his small intestine, so he has a stoma put in place too.

I feel so in the dark as to what his recovery might look like, how long his stay in hospital will be , and indeed how life changing this is going to be. Obviously it could be cancer and thats a whole other battle in itself, but if it isnt cancer and recovery is straightforward - I need to learn more.

Sorry for the ramble. Glad to hear of peoples experiences.

Ewife xx

[Frasina]

My dad also had a blockage and surgery and he was in his early eighties at the time. It was worrying but fortunately in my dads case, his diverticular that he did know about was causing much of the problem and I must add that this was going back to the early 2000's not now! The hospital kept him in for a good couple of weeks back then because he ended up with a stoma too. All I can say is that he lived another decade and died from a kidney issue rather than anything related to his stoma or operation. I am sure things have moved on in the past 20 years and nowadays stomas and stoma care is so much better than it was. You could try other sites (fb) where you may find more people in exactly your dads situation - I have IBD so am on the crohns and colitis group. Try that.

[Ewife in reply to Frasina]

Thank you for taking time to reply 🙂 Is there a forum specific to Stomas? I was only on this one for a minor bowel problem I had myself a while back.

[Frasina in reply to Ewife]

There is the crohn's and colitis fb forum and many on that forum do have stomas. I would imagine that there is also a fb stoma forum too. Perhaps something you can check....

[MyStar86]

I think the stay will be at least a couple of weeks with it being an emergency and he will have to be stoma competent before he can leave which is what takes the extra time but he will have stoma nurses there all the time to help show him how to safely change his stoma and how to look after it on a day to day basis and also red flags to lookout for like high out out or a blockage so he is aware of things to look for in the future. The recovery is about 3 months but can be longer it took me 8 months for my stoma output to normalise and for me to feel full happy changing and managing my stoma but I was only in hospital for a week but my surgery was planned so that’s why I feel your dad will be longer. It’s very hard initially learning on your own what to eat and what not to eat also trying to stay on top of stoma output as mine was very high and watery which is dangerous so that made life difficult but I’m so happy now it’s all normal and I wouldn’t be without my stoma I love it. What type of stoma does your dad have I have an ileostomy so I can always help if you have any questions but I don’t know much re colostomy but stoma nurses are angels they are the best nurses I’ve ever met they are so kind and helpful they will truly look after your dad well into the future xx

[Ewife in reply to MyStar86]

Thank you for taking time to reply. Its pretty difficult to find out exactly what he has had removed. He's pretty out of it and exhausted. I don't think the surgical team have been back and the Stoma nurses arent in until Monday. It seems that they were quite drastic and took quite a bit. We werent expecting his small intestine to be touched, the lesion was in his colon. The notes clearly say iliectomy too. I didnt know there were 2 types of stomas but its clearly on his right side so Im guessing its an ileostomy?

[MyStar86 in reply to Ewife]

It sounds like an ileostomy that’s where they take the whole colon out and take the end of the small intestine out through the stomach which is what goes into the stoma bag. Sometimes they take the damaged part of the colon out and use what’s left of the colon to form a stoma which is a colostomy I think sometimes colostomy’s can be reversed if there is enough of the colon left sometimes they can create an ileostomy to let the bowel rest so they take the damaged section out of the colon and form a loop ileostomy so the colon can rest and heal then reverse it so there are actually 3 types of stomas an end ileostomy, a loop ileostomy and a colostomy.

That’s not good that they don’t have stoma nurses in over the weekend but they should have stoma competent nurses to be able to help your dad. It is scary to start with and for about 6 weeks he will have to follow a low fibre diet so not fruit or veg or brown healthy things it’s basically a white diet as the bowel will be sluggish so to help ease the pain etc they recommend low fibre for 6 weeks then a slow transition to normal eating most people can follow a normal healthy diet but you just have to chew like crazy and have vegetables on the soggy side so they are easier to digest and be careful of skins on food and I never eat mushrooms they can cause blockages but some people do eat them I’m just very careful as I had a blockage once before from not chewing carrots well enough and it’s so scary and painful but you can manage it at home usually.

They won’t let your dad leave without giving you all the information and how to live with a stoma but generally it doesn’t impact you life it’s just the first 6 months take some adjusting but keep in mind it is just the start once it’s adjusted he will live a normal life just with the added thing of changing his bags and emptying it vs using the toilet but personally I love mine and wouldn’t be without it.

Any questions I’ll be happy to help if I can xx

[Ewife]

Thank you so much.🤗

[Ewife]

Hello.....theyre talking about him coming home from hospital next week which is hard to imagine at this point.Is it likely he will get district nurse visits or carers or anything?

He has had a large section of large intestine removed and an ileostomy. He is very weak, not able to sit in a chair for long periods and unable to walk unaided so far. The stoma is working, and they have just introduced sloppy foods.

Thanks

Ewife