Seeking Advice for Unexplained Ileostomy Blockage

Hi Terry, I am only 4 months post-op and my biggest fear is a blockage, so I sympathize with your fear. I get such awful cramps prior to things moving that I am not sure if it is the start of a blockage. In my past life before colostomy, I would get a pitcher of warm water and toss a bunch of salt in it, and within 2 hours, I would be completely cleaned out. I would be afraid to try that now. I had a colonoscopy, and three days after, I was really backed up. It was weird, and I often wonder if the nurses thought it odd that two of us were in the ER post-colonoscopy the same day. Maybe somebody didn't clean the endoscope. They sent me to X-ray, and right after that, I emptied. When I got back, I told them they couldn't rely on X-ray as I just went. They gave me citrate of magnesium anyway to take at home. I never took it.

I sure hope this stays resolved for you. God bless and praying for you.

Linda

I was horribly allergic to the Go Lightly solution that they gave me before a colonoscopy. I was so deathly ill it had to be postponed. From then on, I always did the fizzy drink and two little red pills.

I used Coca-Cola to clear mine, took over 8 hours but it worked for me, look it up on the net.

Hi fellow OstoMates! I know this is a thread from an older post, but I wanted to revive it to seek any current input on the issue of blockages with an ileostomy. I categorize blockages into two streams: 1) a full blockage and 2) a partial blockage, and unfortunately, have experienced both. I appreciate that each person's situation is very individual but noticed from the responses that there were common threads in both experience, approaches, and treatments to a blockage.

My question is about partial blockages. I've experimented with several approaches to resolving one, none have worked that well, and sometimes I think it's just luck whether one of the things I try works, or whether it progresses to a full blockage. Based on scans that have been done, I know the problem is likely adhesions and sharp kinks in the small intestine and a smaller stoma. The approaches I've tried include drinking lots of prune juice (often helps a lot), and more recently trying a product used for clearing the intestines prior to a scope (e.g., Peglyte or Klean-Prep).

A number of people in previous responses to this post mentioned drinking cola. I'm interested to know if others have tried this or any alternatives. I'm not clear from the posts whether it's the combination of caffeine, carbonation, and sugar or one of the ingredients. I haven't had pop for years and try to avoid products with a lot of sugar, but if this helps, it's a small price to pay for clearing a blockage.

Thanks for any new input you can provide.