What to Expect When Returning Home After Surgery

What is it like when you get home after surgery?

Hopefully, you got some help with your ostomy while in the hospital to help you learn how/what to do. If not, you may want to try to get some home healthcare if possible. Getting home is good; it means you're over the jump and leveling out to your new normal.

There is a lot to learn when it comes to different products to use, and here these people are amazing. They know more, it seems, than a stoma nurse, so ask any questions, even if you feel it's embarrassing, because it's happened to one of us. So just ask.

I had my proctocolectomy with end ileostomy just over a year ago.

Waking up after surgery was painful, but they loaded me up with pain meds until it wasn't so bad. Recovering in the hospital was mostly boring, occasionally frustrating, sometimes painful, but it went well overall.

I had to travel about seven hours to Denver for surgery, so I didn't go straight home, just to the hotel across the street where my wife had been staying. We were there for several days, and it went pretty well. I didn't have very many ways to get comfortable. Sitting was not comfortable for more than a few minutes because they'd removed my anus, lying down required finding just the right position, and standing up was OK, but I got tired quickly. Other than that, it wasn't especially hard.

Getting home was something I'd worried about for months leading up to the surgery, but it turned out to be no problem. They cleared me to go home ten days after my surgery, and we made the seven-hour drive back without any real difficulty.

Being back at home was a bit of a challenge. I had fortunately gotten the contact information for a local ostomy nurse because not much was really set up when I got discharged from the hospital. They'd set me up with home health care, but I opted to skip that after talking it over with the ostomy nurse because I was concerned that the home health nurses wouldn't really know much about my ostomy. I got referred to a wound care clinic, and I had a flurry of appointments with the ostomy nurse, and pretty quickly got things figured out and the right supplies on order. I did a lot of experimentation with different supplies for the first few months and eventually settled on a system that seems to be working really well for me.

I also joined a local support group, and that was incredibly helpful. It gave me some real people to call if I had questions or problems, and that really made a difference to me. I've gotten a lot of support online as well, but there's something about knowing that I can call somebody if I have a problem at 3 AM (not that I ever actually had to do that, but knowing I could was a great comfort!)

It took a few months before I really felt like I was back to normal, but within a few weeks I was at least back to doing most things without any real problems. By about four months after surgery, it had gotten routine to the point that I don't think that much about it. It's a minor nuisance that I have to go empty it several times a day, but other than when it's getting full or when I'm emptying or changing the pouch, I rarely even pay attention to it.

I too am facing colostomy surgery in early January. I already had bowel surgery where they cut out 18" of my large intestine due to 'redundancy' - that didn't help at all. I woke up to a drain that wasn't bad to have in, but one day he removed it, and I thought prior to that I knew what a pain level of 10 was, but it was redefined that day! Do you have a drain in your lower abdomen or anywhere else when you wake up? How is the pain level? Are you able to get up and move around pretty quickly? Does a dietician come talk to you about your new diet? Any other surprises waiting for me 'on the other side' besides adjusting to a completely different body? Thanks.......

Living with Your Ostomy | Hollister

It's best if you have home healthcare to help you out. I had an ostomy/wound care nurse as well as PT and OT to help me get back on my feet after I had surgery. These were very valuable services put in place by my surgeon and GP working together. If you can get these services, please do. If not, just take it one day at a time. Expect leaks; they will happen. Expect to have to work out the best way for you to apply your bag, ring, stoma powder, or whatever supplies you end up using. Even with an ostomy nurse, sometimes you have to work out what works best for you. For instance, my ostomy nurse told me to apply only half a ring. She would say less is better. But I just ended up with leaks at the top of my bag where the ring was not. So I learned to use the whole ring by myself and have hardly had a leak since. You will get the hang of it. It takes a little time. You may have high-volume output at first that will get less over time. Also, the size of your stoma will change over time. It may start out big and oval-shaped and end up round and smaller. It all just takes time. Don't be in a rush for anything to happen.