Retracted Stoma - Normal or Cause for Concern?

Hi all.

It's been 3 weeks tomorrow since my operation for an ileostomy.

I woke up this morning panicking that I couldn't see my stoma. I rang the stoma nurse and she said it has retracted and this is normal!

Has anyone else's done this and have you had any problems with bags etc?

Since your stoma is the last part of your intestine, it still works the same, trying to move the stool along. I don't know which is preferable: yours, which retracts completely, or mine, which extends a fair bit and then reduces but still shows. In either case, it will extend and contract since it was "designed" to do that. The only difficulty you might have is to make sure your stool does not contact your skin. Your skin was not designed to deal with the caustic nature of your stool.

Just relax and enjoy the pleasures of being alive.

Ed

Anoniem puts things so much more eloquently. No one warned me of this after my surgery. I was sitting at my computer one day and picked up my shirt to check (as I do a million times a day it seems) and mine was so big and puffy I almost thought it was turning into an alien! Immediately I went on the net and typed in "big, puffy stoma" and a site came up that explained the very thing Anoniem said. It works like it's supposed to. I never knew how my crap got through my intestines until now - it seems that is what they do inside us to move everything along. We just never had the privilege of watching it before. Since then, I have noticed it goes up and down a lot, seems to go further down when I am sleeping (I only know this because of how it looks when I first wake up - not that I can see in my sleep :)).

Hi Zywie

I have had the same experience,

I hope all is ok with you,

Like it is with me.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards

Midgey

Yep, it's called peristalsis. ...The way the intestine moves things along. First time it happened to me (that I saw!) I was with an ostomy nurse. Instead of reassuring me about it, she just looked funny. But as soon as I got home, it was back out. ....A case of... I will huff and I will puff and I will blooooow the poop out!....;))

In other words... Relax.... It's normal.

For what it's worth, I witnessed my stoma retracting (transparent pouch) a few weeks before I ended up in the hospital for a blockage. Now that the blockage is clear and I'm not so foolish with eating quickly, it hasn't happened since.

If there's pain with the retraction, I'd talk to your surgeon about it. Some peristalsis is normal, but it shouldn't be excessive.

Hi Northeyalan, I have what they call a "recessed" stoma - as in, mine doesn't protrude out nicely lol. Basically, what mine looks like is a red, dime-sized innie belly button if you can picture that. YES, I have problems with appliances, LOL! I've gotten the leak thing pretty much to the point it's a rarity, but it still sneaks up on me sometimes. At first, it was a nightmare!!! I didn't think I was ever going to get a handle on it, but with a lot of practice, patience, and working with a great stoma nurse, I finally did it.

I will suggest that you use a convex appliance and in combination with that, I use an Eakin seal snugged around my stoma. I put the convex appliance on top of that, snap the pouch on, and put my hand over it to apply heat and pressure for about 10 to 15 minutes. This seems to work like a charm. I've tried other seals, like the Brava ones, and got the WORST leaks from them, burned the top layer of my skin right off - so Eakin seems best. If you are having any leak issues with your retracted or recessed stoma, you might try that approach and see if it helps :-) Good luck!