So I had my first surgery in november. They built the j-pouch and everything. Things have been going really well. My takedown is scheduled for august (ive felt so much better these past few months, im a bit scared to attempt to go back to crapping <. Anyhow..

I was changing my ostomy out about an hour ago when i noticed what looked like a cut/slice on the underside of my stoma. It kind of had a white (maybe scab-likeish) film covering it. Im hoping this is nothing more than a cut. Im actually thinking that when i cut the hole in my barrier, i may have cut it TOO small and when i forced the stoma through the pressure cut the bottom. I gave the on-call doctor at my GI clinic a call and he didnt seem too concerned.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is there any chance this could be some kind of inflamation or would it look different? I still feel good (not sick of feverish or anything), but I still want to make sure its not something out of the ordinary.

Thanks

Sounds okay to me too. You probably did cut the barrier a bit too small and it may have done that. You wouldn't really feel it when it happened. Remember that your stoma will "grow" with peristalis, so you have to leave it some room. When my ET nurse cut a barrier once I was surprised by the size of the cut she made. It seemed too big, but worked really well.

Put some stomahesive powder on it during the next change and I bet it'll heal right up.

Hi Jay,

Yes I have managed to cut Wee Willie (my end ileostomy) before now. It was for the same reason... I'd cut the hole too small. It should heal nicely with Elmer's suggestion of putting some powder on it, just make sure you cut the hole a little bigger next time.

If you are worried about leakage of stool or skin problems you could try Eakin seals (cut the hole a little larger than you need and use the Eakin seal to fill the gaps) or try Convatec's Moldable wafers (which I now use) and so avoid cutting the stoma on the sharp edge of the regular wafers.

However, if your stoma looks like it is getting infected (make sure you check it carefully next time you change) or starts to bleed then you need to get help from your stoma nurse or doctor to make a proper diagnosis. In fact it wouldn't hurt to give your stoma nurse a call anyway to put her in the picture and put your mind at rest.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Shell