Reply to Wayoflife23
Hi Wayoflife,
I'm brand new too. I'm just almost 7 weeks post-op - I had 2 ops immediately prior to the 3rd where I got an ileostomy. I'm in Ireland. I take paracetamol, but because I have lost so much weight, I am only allowed to take children's dose of one tablet. The pain will go, I promise. And it is a very lonely feeling. I had those fears that you have too about looking at, never mind touching the stomas!! (I have 2, one is a fistula - I like to think of it as a vent - the other is for waste or poos, simply put!!) As I got stronger, I was able to tolerate looking at the stomas. I was lucky/unlucky depending on how you look at it that the nurses changed my stoma bags every second day because I was too weak. But gradually, I was able to do it myself, even though it is lovely if you have someone to help to do it for/with you as you come to terms with it. I have named my stomas Milly and Molly respectively!! Milly is no trouble to change. Molly seems to have a spiteful sense of humor though!!! So be gentle with yourself. I'm only just in front of you on the road on this journey.
My problem is getting my output to thicken. I seem to have a revolving door relationship with the hospital at the moment, having been readmitted twice because of high output and dehydration. I am taking 2 Imodium and 2 codeine phosphate 4 times a day along with 3 magnesium. I'm just out of the hospital a few days, having got output to 1100ml ish. But because the hospital left me short codeine phosphate - just 3 tablets! - until my pharmacy opened the next day after discharge, I'm now in the horrors again, with output in the 2,000mls. I am drinking 1 liter of St. Mark's Solution (oral rehydration solution or ORS for short), and just 4 cups, not mugs, of decaf tea per day. (I'm not a coffee person!) But my output is still high. I am eating all the foods to thicken stoma output, and the numbers are coming down only very slowly. I will have these stomas reversed in time, usually done within 3 or 4 months, but because I am so thin (93 lbs and I'm 5ft) and losing, I have been told it will be way longer than that. My frustration and sort of fear lies in the fact that I may have to go back to the hospital again and again. I take my hat off to all the other Ostomates here. You're amazing and inspirational. I can't even get dressed in day clothes yet because of tenderness and itch around stoma wounds and, well, I just can't stand day clothes at the moment.
I wake up every day with a sickening headache that I am told is caused by magnesium depletion. Has anyone else had a similar experience? And if so, how long before it settled, please? Thanks all. Apologies for the long reply. I may post this reply on another topic subject as I realize I have a lot of questions myself. Slรกn.