Stoma Expands When Changing Bags - Is This Normal?

Greetings! I'm asking this question on behalf of my husband who has been an ileostomate for 10 months now. While he's adjusted admirably, there is one issue that is ongoing and causing him quite a bit of stress.



It seems that everytime he removes a bag in order to replace it, his stoma will expand. We aren't sure if it's the air hitting it, or if it's because he does it immediately after taking a hot shower. The problem is that once the stoma has expanded, he must cut a hole in his replacement bag that is big enough to accomodate it, but then once the bag is on the stoma will gradually shrink again and remain smaller, meaning the bag won't be a proper fit.



Any ideas? Why is his stoma expanding - is this common or normal?



Thank you so much for any help you can give me!





Tiggy

hi tiggy and welcome to the forum. i reposted your question in the ostomy question section at the very top of the forum home page{under nurse please}. we have a few nurses who frequent this forum but may not possibly read every post in the other sections. hope this helps. mmsh

Hi Tiggy!  Your Doe here

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   Nice to meet you!  Hey I've had my ileostomy for over 33 years and in the beginning I had the same thing going on and had the same questions...and was told by nurses in three different hospitals the same info, stomas can change their shape and size and swell and 'relax' in size, all the time...totally normal.  And of course since then, over all these years I have found that to be true.  There can be many reasons for it but the bottom line is  it is live and active intestine so it can move 'n groove lol and it might look like a slightly different "strawberry" (as many of us call it lol)  every time you look at it.    Some people have stomas that don't do much...some stomas play games with us....but it is quite common....it can be a pain in the butt when it comes to not fitting properly into the pouch though, that is understood.

I disagree totally with DOE........She couldnt be anymore wrong....Its definitely not a pain in the butt,  but rather a pain in the belly

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  ........................Love Michael

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Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all your ideas and thoughts on the matter.



I will share this with my husband when I'm off work, I'm sure he'll appreciate what everyone had to say.

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Words of Encouragement from Ostomy Advocates I Hollister

I have had chrones since I was a teenager but didn't take the big step of getting an illeostomy until I was in my early sixties [big mistake waiting that long].  Have been living a much less stressful life as a result of the surgery.  To the issue at hand, I find that my stoma too changes shape particularly when I am changing pouces.  Since it's as maleable as some of the other parts of my body used to be when I was  younger, I just squeeze both the patch and the pouch over it.  I have a template for the hole that I cut in the patch.  Indeed, it sometimes takes some coaxing to get the stoma to "shrink" a bit to get it into the hole in the patch but I consider that just one of the things one has to deal with.  It's a small annoyance in the grand scheme of things.

Hi Tiggy, welcome to the forum. I too have had similar problems and for years I never knew when I was going to get a leak, so let me try to explain with the help of a couple of pictures, but first a little background. I got my start with the help of a wonderful lady in Florida and it goes like this. I use Hollister Adapt rings which I warm up with a hair dryer on low for about 20 seconds then slide it on a dowel I had tapered and when I figured the right size I marked the dowel so every ring was of uniform size, even when my stoma had expanded I just kept using the same size. Just for example, if the stoma was , say 1 inch normally, I have my dowel marked at 15/16 inch which allows a 1/32 squeeze around the stoma, as with an ileostomy you don't want any skin exposed because of air and liquid its easy to get behind the wafer, and disaster. Since I started using this about four months ago I've never had a leak and the wafer lasts for up to a week and I just change pouches every 3 to 4 days, also there's no worry about how accurate you apply the pouch or flange 'cause that ring won't let anything get by. Hope I have explained enough, food for thought, Ed



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Again, thank you so much for the ideas!



Ed--- both my husband and I were astounded with your innovative ways of getting around this predicament! Boy, you'd be handy to have around on our bad days!

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Thank you so much for your time and assistance.

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Something I left out, as I no longer use any paste or strip Coloplast, nor skin prep, which was part of my problem, after I use the adhesive remover and dry really well I use a soap that has no oils nor perfume to wash up around the area where the wafer will set(another tip from another lovely lady on here), just make sure the stoma and surrounding are dry.

Worked wonders for me, hope you can put some of this to use, Ed

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I know why my stoma expands and cntracts. It's tryin to breath. Wouldnt youi look for fresh air if you were stuck in a bag of poo???

As I was trying to reply to an earlier post (today, May 5), maybe this would explain better than my usual babbling, Ed.

I can see that our Gus is feeling much, much better! Glad you are xxxxxxx

LOL - Darn right I would! I needed a laugh

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.

Gus, have you thought of throwing a bucket of water on it, I hear it will cause the stoma to retract in a hurry.

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You do see my point, dont you.