Hi Beth,
I had my revision two weeks ago. They planned on just pulling my stoma out a bit, but were prepared to open me up if things didn't go as planned (and I figured they wouldn't). I ended up somewhere in the middle. They were able to pull out my stoma enough, but also found the beginnings of a hernia and needed to make a 5" incision to fix it.....so less than being fully opened up, but not nothing as we hoped for. I also didn't get the epidural this time...........but didn't really need it. I don't do pain meds, but it really wasn't that bad. The first day hurts a bit when you engage your abdomen, otherwise.......if you sit still......it's fine. My hernia incision ended up getting infected.......and that hurt more than things healing. There was really no pain around the stoma to speak of........it was all from the incision to fix the hernia.
If you know you're going to be opened up.........get the epidural.......it's a game changer. Best of luck to ya!!! Let us know how it goes!
;O)