Stoma coming loose after 5+ years?

I have been wondering about the stoma coming loose from the skin. Has anyone ever had this happen? It has been five and a half years since I got mine. If you have had this happen, how many years was it? Thanks for any input. Stay safe.

Hi lovely,

Do you mean your stoma is sticking out more or is the actual skin of your stomach pulling away from your stoma?

Hi Maried, neither one has happened. It just stays real red, almost kinda raw looking where they meet. This may be normal. I have not seen anything on here about it, so I was just wondering. Stay safe.

Hi Lovely,

What you're talking about is called "Mucocutaneous separation". To be honest, I didn't have the guts right now to Google it... because I know it's not going to look pretty. My skin around my stoma is also a bright red, which is normal... but that being said, when I Google "normal stoma"... none shown look like mine. What's shown looks like a red sausage sticking through a nice clean piece of skin with nothing really bonding the two together. Mine looks more like someone ran a bead of red silicone around the base of my stoma to join it smoothly to my abdominal skin. I won't put up a pic because it's not pretty... but can PM you one if you want.

Regards,

Bob

Ok.....I couldn't resist......I did Google it. It wasn't that bad. But it was ugly.

;0)

Bob

Hi Bob, I would like to see one like I described and would like to know if any have come loose. I just got to thinking about it coming loose because the stoma is so soft. You know how you said things just pop in your mind, well that is me also. Stay safe.

Stomas are not usually attractive. When I had surgery, I thought I was going to have a nice clean open hole on my stomach. It shocked me when I saw pink intestine sewn to the outside of my tummy...

I know what you mean, but I have to say mine looks better than a few I have seen.  

Hello Lovely. 

I have to say that you struck a chord when you said that yours looks better than a few you've seen. Before I had my stoma, I Googled the pictures of stomas and was not impressed with what was shown. I shared my concerns with the pre-op stoma nurse, who reassured me that mine would not look like that and would be as perfect as stomas get. Unknown to me at the time, she was talking about her husband's handiwork, which turned out to be correct.

However, over the years my stoma has done all sorts of things and is certainly not the same as it was at the beginning. Apart from the hernia, which sometimes pushes it grossly out of shape and blocks what should be a hole, mine seems to persistently seep-bleed around the edges, which makes me wonder if it is coming adrift from the skin it's supposed to be attached to. Unfortunately I am tending to bleed from all sorts of other places since I was put on blood thinners, so, for now, I am putting the stoma bleeding down to that cause and hoping that it will not get any worse. 

It will be interesting to see if anyone else has this condition at the edges of their stomas, as there is no way I am going anywhere near a hospital at this time!

Best wishes

Bill

Hi guys,

The condition Lovely is talking about, where the stoma separates from the skin, sounds like it predominantly occurs as the result of an infection.....which should be visually obvious. Stomas bleeding is perfectly normal, as long as it stops fairly quickly. Being on blood thinners would hamper that. If you think about what a stoma is, which is the cross section of your bowel sticking through your skin, it makes perfect sense that it would bleed. Our bowels are literally tubes of very small blood vessels, so when a stoma is constructed they simply cut through all those blood vessels. When I change my barrier and wipe and clean my stoma it bleeds pretty good......but clots and stops pretty quickly. It will also bleed if something hits my stoma during the day. I think I'd be concerned if it didn't bleed.

Regards,

Bob

Hi all, I've had my stoma for a long time. Well, actually, my new stoma only a couple of years, but my old one I had for 33 years. And my skin used to get raw around the bottom half due to the opening being at skin level. I couldn't imagine the skin being so raw as the stoma detaching itself from it. The pain would be excruciating, and I would assume the person would be getting medical help before that would happen.

While I have not had this experience myself, I do know someone who has. She had her stoma for several years when she noticed an increase in the bleeding around the stoma. While, as others have pointed out, bleeding and stomas go hand in hand, as the stoma itself is vascular tissue, but my friend noticed a consistent increase in the frequency of bleeding and the amount. Interestingly, she said it was not painful. She consulted her surgeon, who determined that the stoma had indeed pulled away from her skin in one spot. All that was required was a stitch to reattach it to the spot, and my friend tells me things have been fine ever since. She wonders if the fact that she has had 3 pregnancies since her original stoma surgery might have had an effect on it, but her surgeon was noncommittal on that. She told me that late in her pregnancies, her stoma was pushed out to an extreme, but always reverted after giving birth. I would think that would put a fair bit of stress on the join.

Wow... sure glad us guys don't get pregnant... although some with beer bellies might look like they are. I guess the skin around your friend's stoma must have really been stretched to the max. Interesting that it wasn't painful. I've never thought about it much, but I wonder if the abdominal muscles actually bond to the exterior of the stoma just below the skin? I'll look that up later.

Regards,

Bob

  Hi Bob, 
Wouldn't that be adhesion? I've heard that can often times be the case. I read these posts to learn and try to understand what others go through. You seem to be well versed, we appreciate that knowledge.   ..mountain.