Dealing with Increased Odor and Discharge After Colostomy

I had a sigmoid colostomy on July 31st and am currently home after skilled nursing care and am having home health care (under managed Medicare). During the first three weeks, I had a small amount of mucous discharge from the "inactive" rectum (my sphincter is slightly open) but no serious problem with that. Then suddenly a couple days ago I waked up and wondered why I stank so bad! It had nothing to do with my pouch, etc., but the mucous discharge had greatly increased and I had to revert to wearing pull-up paper pants and changing them three times a day because the discharge was so odiferous. When I called my surgeon's office, I was told this was normal for a few weeks and not to worry unless it became much worse. I'm also having a bit of pain there now and having to take a couple pain pills a day--not to mention that it interferes somewhat with my physical therapy. I would really like to hear from those who have had a similar experience early on...

hi i had my surgery 5 weeks ago and i too get themucus sometimes quite a lot. The stoma nurses have told me its normal and will happen from time to time and it does hurtat first and gets sore. It will get better i done get the pain now and the smell is not as bad as it was. it still smells abit but nothing to when it first started it was enough to make you sick. Now i pass it now and agin and when i do i still get the urge to push like when i used to go to the tolet. Trust me it will improve its early days jet. hang in there.

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