I am 73 and I live in England. Amongst several other conditions, I have a very slow transit bowel and SIBO. These, combined with a contribution from my late-diagnosis of Muscular Dystrophy, lead to chronic constipation and I've been told that an elective ileostomy may be the only permanent solution to the painful bloating and excrutiating pain of defecation, when it does happen.
I've read the leaflets that I was given by the stoma nurse and they paint a very rosy picture of living with a stoma (of course). However, I have also been reading all the posts on here and on other HU communitities, written by people who have stomas (admittedly written very early after that surgery) and they paint a very different picture...
The Facebook communities are just as scary. Does anyone have an entirely happy life with their ileostomy? I'd be very grateful to hear from such people. Thank you.
