Hello Everyone!

Well, I had a surgery date of August 24th to revise my stoma, and I got a call from my surgeon on Friday asking if we could advance the date to August 5th. I am looking forward to getting a longer stoma, but I am nervous. I have a complicated medical history and I have a team of three surgeons at a local teaching hospital doing the revision.

No one is expecting this to be an easy revision. Has anyone had a revision that was not text-book easy? What do I need to be prepared for?

-Rae

Well I think it's going to be text-book easy since you've already been through all the horror novels. Really.

I'm sending 'no road-bump' vibes that this one goes better than smoothly and it's the last one you'll have.

kathy

No answers just well wishes! The 5th is my birthday so it's bound to be a success. Good Luck!

Revision is done and I was discharged after five days. The procedure was done laparascopically and had a stomal hernia repair done at the same time. The new stoma, who does not yet have a name (though I'm leaning toward either Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors or Gabriel since he is quite a trumpeter!) is HUGE compared to my previous one. It is only perhaps an inch long, though my surgeon thinks it will lengthen a bit before the major healing is done.

Surgery went well, though post-op had its collection of complications, so I am still feeling pretty beaten up.

Strange thing... I changed my appliance this evening for the first time on my own and have felt oddly depressed since. I'm glad to have had the revision, glad it worked- especially since my normal surgeon would not so much as try the revision until I lost 100 pounds. I don't quite know why I am feeling sad now, but this has all been very overwhelming and any words of encouragement would be really appreciated.

-Rae

Rae,

I am so glad that your surgery went mostly well and you are now home recovering.

Perhaps this surgery and seeing your "new" stoma has just started you in the grieving process again?
I can't say I know exactly how you feel b/c I don't. There are days when I look at my son and am so grateful that he lives in a day and age of such great medical advancs etc....but other days I look at him and am just sad for all that he has to endure. I think we are entitled to those times and indeed need to feel them. We just have to continue to feel blessed for what we do have and try to live one day at a time and not get mired down in depression.
I do hope you are feeling better soon. Do something nice for yourself. You deserve it.

Hi Rae,
I had the perm ileo done in March, then a revision done in July. Sometimes when I change my bag, and look at my stoma it seems unreal; like I am in a dream or something. A couple times I have cried, but afterwards I feel better. I think I just needed to get it out, and move on. I remind myself how awful I felt before, and how much better I feel now, and all my sad feeling go away. My girlfriend told me she had a really bad stomach ache the other night, and was up for hours on the toilet. She said she thought of me, and for that moment wished she had a ileostomy.
Hope things have been going well with you over the last month.
Ann