Jeanette Gone Strong

There is a lot of confusion about Colostomy, mostly it’s due to the nature of the treatment which is private and often leads to people feeling anxious and self-conscious. Therefore, not many people openly share their experiences which results in a scarce source of information. 

But you might have found yourself or someone you know needing a colostomy. This article will look at addressing important questions you might have such as What is a Colostomy? How does having one affect your daily activities and diet? How will you keep it in place? Or how can you be intimate with a Colostomy?

These questions are absolutely normal and knowing the answers will help you become confident and comfortable. It will also allow you to support someone you care about during this change in their life. 

Explaining a Colostomy

A Colostomy is surgery carried out to create an opening at a point on your abdominal or belly wall called a stoma. This opening is positioned to allow the end of your large intestine to be brought through this opening so that any excess food is passed out of your body through the stoma(opening) into a bag. The stoma has a bog attached and allows easy collection of the excess waste from your body. 

What Does a Colostomy Do?

A colostomy will not change the way your body will process food and water, these processes will remain the same. The surgical cut may be small or large depending on what your Doctor prescribes and the best solution. Since the stoma has no nerve endings, which help us register pain, this procedure does not cause any pain. Your colostomy can be temporary or permanent, depending on your condition and your Doctor’s recommendation. 

The only thing that changes will be how waste leaves your body, which is through your stoma and not the end of your small intestine.

There are many reasons a person may need a colostomy, some of these are because a part of the digestive tract is destroyed or unable to function as needed due to injury or disease. Some may need it due to pain experienced in the digestive tract due to disease such as Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome. Blockage in your digestive tract which causes build up and could negatively affect organs. 

How Is A Colostomy Carried Out? 

A colostomy is administered under general anesthesia and the patient will be asleep during the process which helps them avoid feeling pain or having traumatic memories from the surgery. 

After the operation, a patient may need to stay in the hospital for 3 to 7 days and may be required to follow a liquid and soft food diet for a few days after surgery. 

Colostomy Care

A colostomy requires gentle adjustment to avoid risks such as internal bleeding, swelling, leaking, hernia, scar tissue or irritation. It is important to take care of the skin around the stoma by regularly washing it with clean water and gently drying it with a clean soft towel. 

The topic is something I never imagined could possibly happen in the United States of America.  The year is 2020 and we just got over an incredible covid-19 pandemic.  But really we didn’t, this last week we just got out of mandatory lockdowns across the United States.  The majority of the country is starting to slowly open up and the supply chain for our regular Ostomy Care gear is getting back to normal. 

The problem is now that riots are overtaking the majority of major cities in the United States.  It is possible now that supply for you daily medical care could be halted in a second way!  So things are a bit crazy right now and it is shocking that health care issues are now becoming a normal weekly occurrence in this country. So let us go over some things to be prepared for the current times and if they possibly get worse.  Lets face it the November election may cause this to happen all over again and maybe even worse.

So first let’s just calm down.  The world is not ending.  Yes, we just got over the supply and demand issues from Covid-19 and yes there are mass riots across the United States.  The rule of law is still in place for the majority of the country.  Now if you live in a major city, you may be partially outside the rule of law and I would suggest just leaving.  If you have a medical condition and supply is impossible in a major city or your pharmacy just got burned down, it’s time to go. If that is an impossible situation and you are stuck or may be stuck in the future, then you need to prepare. 

Your ostomy care is very important and you need to make sure you have all the gear needed to survive a breakdown in supply.  If you need a certain number of bags a month, the pandemic and riots have shown us that we may lose control over shipping for up to 3 months.  I would suggest getting at least 3 months of sanitary products and gear for the emergency situation that you may find yourself in.  Boy I hope that it never happens but we have seen the breakdown of supply and rule of law in our country. So it is no longer a bad thing to prepare for and be safe.

If you are part of the working force in 2020 in the United States I am sure you have experienced some kind of change.  The entire way of life for many Americans has completely changed and their jobs have been significantly changed as well.  If you are still working from home and considered non essential then some find it a blessing and a curse.  For those that are working from home with an ostomy it is also been a different story too.  There is a little bit more to life when you have a stoma and the effects of change can take a toll.  We have all learned valuable lessons this year and ostomy care is part of it.  So lets go over a few things to make sure you are prepared and also ready for any other situation like this that may happen in the future.

So the first thing that scared people this year was the lack of some basic goods.  Grocery stores were not ready for the amount of panic buying that took place for at least a month really two months in the United States. This kind of panic buying took its toll on many individuals who were unable to buy basic necessities and supplies.  One area that really got hit was toilet paper.  This simply household supply ran out across the country and many were left unable to have a basic sanitary need.

If you have a stoma this is also a problem because sanitary wipes and other things ran out as well.  So my advice from this point on is have backups for your ostomy care needs for months.  I never thought I would ever say this but the shortage means something different for those who need extra supplies.  This goes for bags, caps, wipes and anything you use on a regular basis, have extras on hand.

The next thing is hygiene.  I know that sounds silly, but basic hygiene is more important now that you are not going out as much.  Many people have only left their homes a handful of times in the last two months.  This also means I am pretty sure that their basic hygiene needs are suffering.  Take showers, and treat your skin.  Your stoma is very important and keeping your skin around it healthy is key to being happy and living a normal life. So don’t skimp on these parts of your life

The difference between a preppier and a normal American now is becoming very slight. The world has most definitely changed since the appearance of pandemic.  The pandemic has wreaked havoc on economies across the globe and has also taken its toll on most lives.  We are now in a place where we have experienced shortages of common products and even necessities at home.  Being in a first world country I honestly never believed that would be possible.  But it hits people harder now that they have experienced it first hand.  If you have special needs or medical needs in any way it becomes more serious too. When it comes to having a stoma then lots of things need to be addressed.

First of all you need to stock up on the products that you actually need.  This is no longer a tv show about being prepared for the end of the world.  We now know that shortages can come from simple viruses.  So make sure your ostomy care supplies are in stock for a good long time.  I honestly suggest have months of extras on hand.  This means if you are new you need to know what works for you. This can easily be done buy testing the waters. Testing products is usually free.  Yes, it is actually free from a lot of places.  So look online and check out ostomy care companies and make sure you find the right products that work best for you.  Now stock up on them! 

This is also good because you can get lots the products you need for a discounted price.  The more you buy the greater the discount.  That is how most businesses have run for years and it still holds true in the ostomy industry. So once you find the product that works just save up the extra money and get a good 3 to 6 months of extra supplies.  It really is important to have that much extra on hand.  If this covid-19 pandemic has shown anything it is that the regular supply of goods can actually stop.  If you have stoma that can cause real issues if you run out of just your basic bags.  Things can be reused but there does come a point of sanitation and when those sanitation products were the first things to disappear it all becomes clear.

Make sure you have enough.  It is also wise to be smart and not panic buy when there is a low supply. That hurts everyone. So buy extras when companies have extra. Be safe be smart.

There is absolutely nothing more frustrating than not having a good supplier for ostomy supplies, products, and accessories. Of all the things that I have to worry about from day to day in my crazy busy schedule, thinking about where I am going to get my next supply of ostomy pouches and accessories should not be one of them. In fact, a good way for me to ruin my day is to run out of ostomy pouches while I’m at work. That is what we call a disaster my friends. Ostomy supplies are really annoying to buy for a variety of reasons. In this weird, short, and oddly specific yet vague article, I will be writing about where you should be going to buy various ostomy supplies and accessories. If you don’t actually wear an ostomy pouch and just happened to stumble across this article, feel free to read it anyway because you never know when this information will become really important to you. 

I used to always get really frustrated when it came to buying ostomy supplies. No doubt the worst part is that stuff is expensive and for basically no reason. I mean, what good is insurance if I can’t even use it to have my ostomy supplies covered? I swear that insurance companies are basically the biggest scam artists of the 21st century. Anyways, it’s safe to say that buying ostomy products is a huge pain in the neck. If you have ever gone to a supermarket or pharmacy to try to buy your ostomy supplies, then you know how impossible it is to actually find what you need. The thing about buying ostomy supplies is that it is a pretty niche market, so there are not a whole lot of places that are going to be selling that sort of thing.

Some hospitals work as a supplier of ostomy supplies, which makes it possible to buy certain products from the hospital. But as we all know, hospitals are way too expensive, and this certainly applies to the products that they sell. I would rather have my stoma leak output all over my living room carpet than pay the hospital’s price for a few ostomy pouches. That is why I started to look for alternative ways and sources of buying the ostomy products that I needed day in and day out.

I would like to say that after months and months of being frustrated with trying to buy the ostomy supplies that I needed, I decided that I would just start looking around on the internet for the stuff that I needed to buy. The internet always used to scare me because I was afraid of accidentally downloading a virus onto my computer or the threat of some dude in Indiana holding all of my data for ransom. To my surprise, the internet can actually be a pretty cool place, especially when it comes to shopping for medical supplies; more specifically, the internet is great for buying ostomy supplies. I have officially started ordering all of my ostomy products online and will probably never go back to buying those things in a brick and mortar store ever again. The great thing about buying ostomy supplies online is that you can find pretty much whatever you need for relatively cheap.

Learning curves are sometimes pretty hard when it comes to healthcare and your own body.  For me getting a stoma was a hard learning curve to get over.  The information from your ostomy nurse and doctors simply feels like it never stops coming.  Well, it is ok to feel a bit overwhelmed by it.  But learn all you can because the learning curve goes down and then only the fun stuff is left.  For me, I am always on a journey to learn new things and I have to admit that with my active lifestyle sometimes it is forced upon me.  I find myself getting into more trouble trying to do something that I may not be ready for, but I do learn a whole lot of things really fast.  I struggled hard to make sure I could still do what I love and that is jogging on my local trails.

The outdoors are simply apart of my life and are very important to me.  I have built-in time to run every week outside because it brings joy to my life and I feel incomplete without being outside.  The feeling of being trapped hits hard and believe me a bad winter that keeps me inside hurts more than just my body.  My soul aches to be free and enjoy the peace and order that is in the great outdoors.  If you need to be outside then getting the best gear and not going broke is key.

There are a lot of places to go and I suggest learning what bags and belts I would need and what seels may work best for my stoma.  Like an old guy, I called everyone from pharmacists to major companies that make ostomy gear.  Instead of getting the door slammed on me, I learned a whole lot and many people went beyond what they needed to help me out.  Make sure to include those important individuals in your life.

The next part that surprised me the most was the impact I now felt from my stoma.  Every jog, every run, and literally every step I felt more now.  My body felt my stoma and knew the impacts were not the best thing for it.  Now it was not an emergency or medical issue, but for my body, I knew that I needed to somehow lessen the impacts that my body was feeling.  Researching I ran into the idea of barefoot running. 

Now, these companies helped me change how I would run and how I would enjoy running. Barefoot companies make shoes that simulate barefoot feet and provide protection from the ground.  Rocks and sticks are the worst, so be protected by thick yet flexible rubber was the key.  The finger shoes or Merrels are the brands I am talking about.   

You have to relearn how to run with these.  Gate is the actual way you run and I was heel striking with normal shoes and it was causing more impacts on my body.  So by forcing a change in my gate I used barefoot shoes.  This was a really hard transition because your gate changes.  This meant that my calves and quads were now taking almost all the impact of jogging instead of my body.  It really was a painful month to change over and get my muscles to grow. But my stoma felt so much better. It was like a massive change took place and it also made my body feel better.