Need advice on colostomy diet after bowel surgery

I had a major bowel surgery a couple of weeks ago. I'm on a wound vac due to the incision splitting almost completely open. I am also on a walker and pretty much bedbound. My stoma was also moved back to the other side. I was given no diet restrictions. Is there someone that I need to talk to?

I did the wound vac thing too. It helped close my wound in half the time it took for me to close similar wounds in the past. Having to vac as a constant companion was something of an annoyance but.

Normally there's a diet that folks follow for about 6 weeks after a new ostomy at which point they can introduce other foods. There are minor variations on what the different websites say are in that diet but the variance is minor. Since this is really just an existing ostomy I don't know if those rules apply but I'd think that anytime you get a resection that there would be some transitioning taking place.

I would ask your GE what they have to say.

Dave

Hello Shadowchick.

I am afraid I cannot be of much help regarding my own experience as it was so long ago that I have forgotten what advice was given at the time. However, what I have found is that this site offers the opportunity of reading many past posts on a variety of subjects and this is one where there have been plenty of posts.

If you go into 'COLLECTIONS' (at the top of the page) - then 'PREMIUM CONTENT' ---then 'Food, diet and eating habits with an Ostomy' you'll find lots of interesting information and discussion.

Best wishes

Bill

When I had my ileo resection done last year, the dietician recommended a low residue diet for a couple of weeks after I was released from the hospital. Yogurts, pasta, applesauce.

I follow the SIBO diet as much as I can. I'm not perfect nor is it perfect, but it's been the best option I've found so far at just over 25 months into my full colon removal and colostomy. I'm also largely dairy-free.

Just search for SIBO diet and you'll find the info. Good luck!

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Any time you have major colon surgery, a low-residue diet is recommended for the first weeks after the surgery. This helps the colon to heal by reducing the work it has to do. Think of it as someone trying to juggle while their broken arm is in a cast - it can be done, but it puts a lot of stress on the broken arm. This is fine for a while, but a low-residue diet is generally an overall unhealthy diet, so after a time (your doctor or a dietician can tell you how long) you start introducing other foods until you are basically back to your pre-surgery diet. Adding back salads, grains, fruits and vegetables will not only be a healthier diet, but a less boring and more satisfying one as well. Occasionally, you will find a food that your newly shortened and somewhat constricted system won't tolerate, and you just eliminate them from your diet. For me, that was popcorn. With a peristomal hernia to accompany the stoma, those little suckers would swell up and compact and cause a painful near-blockage that would take hours to pass. So now, I just don't eat popcorn anymore. (Sad sigh.) Oh well.

Good luck, and may you find very few foods you can't eat anymore.