California on Dirt
Stoma Complications
California on Dirt

Parastomal Hernia

by Maria

A parastomal hernia is a condition when any part of the intestines protrudes or stick out of the stoma. A stoma is an opening that is created surgically in the abdomen. It involves the small intestine or large intestine and enables a person to pass out waste through it. The waste is collected outside the body in a pouch that adheres to the stoma. This operation is required when persons have issues with the gastrointestinal system that does not allow him or them to have normal bowel functioning.

Parastomal hernia is among one of the most common complications after the Ostomy. Almost 78% percent of the patients undergo parastomal hernia after the Ostomy surgery. It mostly occurs within the two years after the surgery.

What are some most common signs and symptoms?

  • You will feel pain and discomfort near the stoma
  • You will have a hard experience keeping the Ostomy appliance in place
  • You may observe a bulge near the stoma especially when you are coughing

What are the causes for parastomal hernia?

Very nearly 5-10 % of individuals with colostomies have opportunities to foster hernia and just about 3-10% of patients with ileostomy likewise develop a parastomal hernia. In any case, it is hard to tell that who may be influenced by parastomal hernia. A few variables can assist you with foreseeing it before its turn of events.

  • Location of the stoma: Typically, when another stoma is made, it should be brought through a muscle present in the midsection that is referred to as rectus abdominous. On the off chance that the stoma is set external this muscle, this might foster a hernia.
  • Obesity: People with a ton of fats or stoutness have a bigger number of opportunities to foster a hernia than others.
  • Malnutrition: If you don’t take an even eating regimen or you have a horrible eating routine after the medical procedure, this won’t just influence the recuperating time yet, in addition, debilitate your parastomal region.
  • Age: Advancing age can be the justification for helpless muscles tone. This will foster hernia all the more without any problem.
  • Increased intra-stomach pressure: The conditions like extreme hacking, serious wheezing, or lifting a substantial article can likewise debilitate the muscles of the mid-region close to the stoma; this will be the justification for the expanded pressing factor inside the mid-region that can prompt a hernia.
  • Infection following stomal medical procedure: Any sort of contamination can debilitate the muscles of the stomach divider and prompts a parastomal hernia.

Parastomal hernias might happen soon after the medical procedure and in different cases, it requires numerous years to occur. Normally, individuals (80%) don’t encounter any confusion during hernias and recuperate with no intercessions. The remainder of the 20% may see a few manifestations that should be settled any oversaw right away. Now and again, a hernia can be seen uniquely in a specific position, for example, in case you are standing or sitting. Also, this will vanish when if you will lie on your back. Sometimes, a hernia can be seen in any position.

Who is at the risk of getting parastomal hernias?

Some people have higher chances to get parastomal hernias. These are people with:

  • Older age
  • Diabetes
  • High blood pressure
  • Obesity
  • Cancer
  • Respiratory issues

How it can be treated?

In most cases, it can be treated by adopting some lifestyle changes, for example, weight loss quit smoking. Wearing an Ostomy belt also aids in relieving symptoms.

20 % of the hernias need surgery for healing.

The most common surgical procedures are:

  • Closing the stoma: It is considered the best option for the repair of parastomal hernias. It is an option for patients who have healthy bowel that can reconnect the ends that form stomas.
  • Repairing the hernia: In this method, the surgeon opens the wall of the abdomen and stitch the muscles and the tissue along. It narrows or closes the hernia. In the case of a small hernia, this is the best option.
  • Relocating the hernia: In some situations, the surgeon needs to close the stoma which has gained parastomal hernia and create a new stoma anywhere else in the abdomen. A new stoma may be formed around the prior stoma.

Mesh: Mesh insert is one of the most common and best treatments nowadays. A surgeon may use a synthetic or biological mesh. Although the biological mesh is more expensive, it is more comfortable. This is the same as other surgeries. In addition, a mesh is placed over the hernia and below the abdominal wall so that it appears as a strong bridge, and chances for a hernia to reoccur are very less.

Complications:

The intestines can be twisted or trapped in the hernia, but it very rare case. This leads to the blockage of the intestines and causes loss of blood. This results in a very painful condition referred to as strangulation. It needs emergency surgery otherwise blood will not reach the intestine and it may get damaged forever.

Living with a parastomal hernia:

Parastomal hernias are common after the surgery. You can get over this condition easily by taking good care of yourself and making some changes in your life.

Shopping For Ostomy Supplies

by Maria

Anyone who has an ostomy or has to live with a stoma knows the pain of trying to find the right ostomy supplies on a regular. Sure, the doctors are great at telling you all about the surgery of getting an ostomy and how that will change your life, including the activities that you are able to do and the foods that you are able to eat, but nobody warns you or prepares you for the ever-present responsibility of having to purchase ostomy supplies every week for the rest of your life.

I have personally found it really difficult to keep up with the needs of my stoma in regards to ostomy pouches, stoma products, and all around finding the right ostomy supplies and accessories that I need to keep everything going smoothly with my physical health. There are not as many places to buy good ostomy supplies as one might think – most people don’t even know what an ostomy is. That should tell you how hard it is to find various ostomy products in your normal supermarkets and department stores. The laws of supply and demand do not exclude even the most niche medical supplies, no matter how necessary they may be. Since not a lot of people need ostomy supplies (besides people with an ostomy), stores do not care enough to keep a good supply and variety on their shelves.

With all that being said, I definitely have had to come a long way when it comes to finding the right ostomy supplies for my specific needs and getting the products I need without having to spend ridiculous amounts of money. I remember back to when I first had surgery and the hospital informed me of the ostomy products they sell. At the time, I figured that I would be getting all the ostomy products and accessories from the hospital and consequently did not look into many other resources or suppliers.

However, once I found out that my insurance would not cover the cost of purchasing ostomy supplies at the hospital supplier, I realized that I would need to look for alternative sources from which to buy the ostomy products that I needed. This was definitely a stressful time in my life since I was trying to balance my budget with my need for ostomy supplies, all while recovering from my recent surgery to have my stoma put in. The thing about ostomy products is that your best bet is to go shop for them online. Once I found this out, the whole game changed for the better.

Shopping online for ostomy products is definitely the way to go. Since the internet is becoming such a big part of our market today, it makes sense that you can buy ostomy products thereto. In fact, you can pretty much buy anything online these days if you are willing to look hard enough. Now that I order my ostomy supplies online, I don’t have to worry about making specific trips to random stores to try to find the products or brands that I like, and there is a much greater selection for me to choose all from the comfort of my own couch. Anyday that I can enjoy quality ostomy supplies that are covered by my insurance is a good day in my book. 

Signs That Something Is Wrong With Your Stoma

by Maria

For those of you who are not familiar with what a stoma is, a stoma is an opening created during surgery on the intestines. It then allows for a person’s waste like urine and feces to be sent through the stoma out of the body and into an ostomy pouch. If you are lucky enough to have no idea what a stoma is, then I suggest that you stop reading this article immediately; things are about to get real nasty up in here, and I am not going to be held responsible if your sensitive eyes are not able to handle it.

With all that being said, today I wanted to write about what happens when something is wrong with your stoma. The last thing that any of us with an ostomy want to deal with is further complications – however, there are a few warning signs that people with an ostomy should look out for in order to catch a problem with their stoma before it gets too bad, and I am going to spend some time today talking about those. Keep in mind that I really do not want to write this article (in fact, I would rather be doing just about anything else right now). However, it is important for me to write about this in order to keep my job. So without further ado, here are some signs that your stoma is not in the best shape and that you may need to go get things looked at by a professional (which I am not).

The first sign that something may be wrong with your stoma is that the swelling does not decrease in size as you are recovering from surgery. Directly after surgery things are going to be pretty tender for a while; this makes sense, since you literally just had your body cut open and your natural organs rerouted to different places in your body.

However, if the swelling does not decrease in size during the weeks following surgery or increase a lot, that may be a sign that something is wrong. I do not want to freak you out at all, but it might be advisable for you to seek some professional opinion on what could be wrong with your stoma. Another sign that something could be wrong with your stoma is that the skin of the stoma no longer looks beefy red or pink as it should. If it looks pale and dry, then there is something definitely wrong with your stoma. Hopefully you have insurance, because you are soon on your way to the hospital my friend! All jokes aside, I hope that everything with your stoma works out okay and that it isn’t anything serious. 

There are also signs that the stoma may not be doing well if you look at the skin that surrounds the stoma as well. One such sign is that the skin around the stoma is appearing red, irritated, or swelling. Now, it is true that these things could be happening for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the skin around the stoma can become irritated simply because of frequent skin barrier changes or improper cleaning or hygiene of this area. However, if this becomes a problem that persists often and does not seem like it is going to get better on its own, it might be worth getting looked at from a professional.

How To Keep Your Stoma Clean

by Maria

We can all agree that keeping your stoma clean is one of the most important parts of the daily routine for anyone living with an ostomy. However, there is a lot to know when learning how to best clean out your stoma on a regular basis without creating any more problems or complications for your ostomy. Luckily for you, I have had a stoma for a lot of years and have a lot of experience in cleaning and caring for my stoma well. Like anything else in life, learning how to properly clean and take care of a stoma can take time and there is a bit of a learning curve involved, so make sure to be patient with yourself and don’t be too hard on yourself if you make some mistakes here and there.

With all that being said, I am writing this article to help people like you who may be looking around online for some tips and tricks that can be used for cleaning out your stoma. If you have any questions about anything I talk about in this article, feel free to leave them in the comment section below and I will answer them as quickly and efficiently as possible. So without further ado, let’s start talking about how you can best clean out your stoma. 

The importance of cleaning your stoma on a daily basis cannot be stressed enough. In fact, I cannot overstate the importance of cleaning your stoma and ostomy system everytime you go to change your ostomy pouch. Cleaning your stoma can prevent you from a lot of bacterial infections, skin irritations, and other things like that. After all, think about all the nasty bacteria that lives inside your feces and urine that is constantly pouring out of your stoma and into your ostomy pouch.

If you look at it from this perspective, it makes total sense that the stoma will need regular cleaning and attention. The first thing to do when you are cleaning your stoma is to remove the ostomy pouch. This may sound like an obvious one, since you physically do not have access to your stoma while you are wearing the pouch, but I thought I would include it here anyway. If you are wearing a two-piece ostomy pouch system, you will also have to remove the skin barrier when cleaning the stoma so that you have better access to the stoma and the area around it.

When it comes to cleaning out the stoma, the process is actually not too complicated. Surprisingly, the only thing that you will really want to use when cleaning out the stoma is simply some warm, clean, fresh water. I would advise against using any form of saline solution of salt water when cleaning the stoma, as this could just create some unnecessary problems or irritation for you. Once you have thoroughly cleaned the stoma as best as you can with warm water, removing all traces of output and any thing left behind, make sure to gently pat the stoma dry with a soft cloth or towel. You want to be careful not to rub the stoma too much or be rough with it – after all, this is the inside of your body we are talking about! I hope that this article helps you for the next time you go to clean your stoma.