Experiences with Parastomal Hernia Treatment?

Living with a parastomal hernia, has anyone had treatment? If so, what was the outcome?

I have had two repairs. The first one did not last more than a year. The second one has been about 16 years. There is still a small hernia, but I cannot see it. When I was having a colonoscopy, they let me know. Find a surgeon that has experience with these types of hernia repairs. The first one was the size of a cantaloupe! It happened after I had 2 children very close together.

Hi John1947, I have not had that problem, but just wanted to wish you the best. Hope you can find some answers. Stay safe.

Hi there, I had two repairs within 5 years of each other. I had a mesh repair by a very qualified surgeon, but come to find out, if you have Crohn's disease, your body somewhat rejects mesh implants or foreign bodies. That is how my parastomal was repaired. I became very ill last year, and the mesh had infiltrated my small intestine. I was very sick. He removed all that and relocated my ostomy to the other side, just a caution. I was in lots of pain through this. If you can hold off, I would try and live with it if you can. My situation is different, but just wanted to give you some insight. Use hernia belts for ostomy if you can.

I get granulomas with absorbable stitches, so I had to have an extra surgery to remove the granulomas. I can only imagine what a mesh implant would do. My peristomal hernia is large and I have to wear a belt to function. My intestine is in the hernia. The advice I have gotten is, if I have symptoms that are acute, call an ambulance and go to the ER because I may need emergency surgery. The ER will give tests to decide what to do. In the meantime, it is watch and wait. My best advice (which I wish someone had told me) is: Start wearing an ostomy belt when you first find out you have a tiny peristomal hernia. Don't wait until it has grown! I don't want you to be looking at what I am dealing with now.

Stories of Living Life to the Fullest from Ostomy Advocates I Hollister

Mine's about the size of a baseball now. It didn't help that I gained some weight, although I'm not obese. I could just kick myself for gaining it all back; what an opportunity after losing 35 pounds when sick! Anyway, it's getting worse. They put in a biological mesh at surgery and another one about a year later. Neither held. I'm not sure what to do next. I'll be on Medicare next year. I have a colostomy from diverticulitis and it's pretty far down, so I'm thinking plastic mesh might work without rejection. Thoughts?