Ostomy Blockage Help Needed

Hello HarleyDoll. Thanks for your informative post about laxatives - I never knew that!  It does sound like a logal alternative to use laxatives and I'm a firm believer in doing whatever is best for you. However, when you say "  It's much easier to let the bag fill up and empty it than to irrigate I would think." it leads me to think that you haven't yet tried irrigation. I'm also a firm believer in giving things a try  before making a judgement on something. I found that for me, irrigation was much easier than using a bag as well as being more convenient and less stressful during the day. I have tried laxatives in the past when needed prior to surgery but several of them made me violently ill so, since then I've not been too keen on that route.  The worst one for me was senacot, which made me feel so ill that I felt I was dying, whereas I'm usually pretty good at pain management. The next time they let me starve for a couple of days and then irrigate, which caused no such problems.

I@m not sure about making friends with my stoma but I do think it has been useful to know as much as I can about it so that I can try different things for the different problems it throws up.

Best wishes

Bill 

Hi Bill. How are you tonight? Regarding irrigation, it has been discussed with my ostomy nurse and because I have IBS quite severely, it is not an option for me. However, I will be the judge of that when I look into it more - LOL :)

Have a great weekend! You are such an inspiration on this board.

Bill,

Your post caught me by surprise. I have an ileostomy and lost no colon, just 6 inches of upper intestine as this was where my two kinks/blockages were with a perforation between the two. Is this not the norm for ileostomy? I am still learning so much.

Hello CANN. I'm not sure which post you are referring to but I hope it wasn't an unpleasant surprise.

We are all learning stuff all the time and most of what I know, or think I know about ileostomies comes from reading what people have written on here.

I do not think there is a 'norm' for the causes and reasons for having to have this operation. from what I can gather some people get a stoma with just a break in the intestines, or a small portion taken out for a variety of reasons. Others need to have various lengths of intestine and colon removed altogether, again for many different reasons.  The former stands some chance of having a reversal at sometime because the bulk of it is still intact, whereas the latter would probably mean a permanent stoma because there would be nothing to reconnect to.

This is just my interpretation of what I have read over the years. However, if you are interested in this sort of stuff it is probably advisable to look it up on a medical website or wikipedia so that you are getting first hand information rather than an interpretation from someone like me who is just reading individual accounts of their own experiences. Sometimes I get new information that makes me rethink all that I thought I knew before so please don't take what I have to say on the subject as in  any way authoritative.

Best wishes

Bill

I take Clear Lax every day. My doctor says it does no harm to the bowels and mine is always pancaking... I find it great

Getting Support in the Ostomy Community with LeeAnne Hayden | Hollister