There are a lot of things in life that are not normal. But we all have things that we have to do every day and in a way that brings us all together. Stomas and ostomy care are something most people are not even aware of in their daily lives. I also had no idea what they were until my mom had to undergo surgery to correct her irregular bowel movements. It was scary, but a thing that saved her joy in life.
The harsh part of life was that she would literally go weeks without producing a bowel movement. This is simply awful. She would be in so much pain and her stomach and colon would be so swollen. Like many other people with this problem, she assumed it was just bad eating habits or an ailment that would eventually correct itself. But this was not normal and not her fault. After years of pain she consulted a doctor about what the real issue could be. This should have been done so much sooner.
It took a specialist to really get things back on track. My mom’s gastrologists recommended different medications and stretching exercises to try to relieve her colon and help with her pain. Again, months passed and not much had changed. The gastrologist ran more tests and determined her colon was much larger than it should be. Normal colons are about five feet in length while hers actually ended up measuring over 8 feet long! That made for a big problem even though I didn’t know why at the time.
Now at least we knew that this was the issue. Her colon was too long and curvy for anything to properly exit. He decided surgery was obviously the best bet. He was going to remove her excess colon and then re-attach it to her small intestine. First, though, he had to create a stoma to ensure the surgery was working properly. So now the learning curve had to start. This meant my mom had to learn ostomy care and make sure everything stayed nice, clean, and sterile. They were unsure if this would be a temporary or permanent solution. But ti was time to step up and go all the way.
Understanding is really important in this time especially when things get wierd. My mom was at one time a nurse’s aide so she understood the importance of sterilization and cleaning numerous times a day. She also was not grossed out by bodily fluids, so that was a plus. I would imagine most people would be grossed out by the fact of having to handle feces multiple times a day. My mom was just relieved her stomach was not swollen and she was not in pain anymore. She said she honestly would’ve kept her stoma until the day that she died if that meant no more pain.
But this for her was not a permanent thing. The doctor decided to reconnect the small and large intestine to the bowel and she could continue living a normal life. Her stoma was a stepping stone on the path to a pain free life. She said she would like everyone with a stoma and ostomy bag to know that it really does get easier and it is not that big of a deal. Which was fantastic.
Intestinal Health Blog 