Colostomy Reversal Recovery: What to Expect and Personal Experiences

I had my ostomy for about six months, and I've been counting down the days until my reversal. I had my colostomy reversal on November 17th, so I'm now 8 days post-op and feeling a lot of mixed emotions — plus so many questions.

I never really struggled with body image issues before, but I wasn't prepared for how unrecognizable my body would feel and look right now. It's overwhelming.

I know everyone heals at their own pace, but I'd love to get a sense of what's “normal.” How long did it take for your stoma opening to fully close after the reversal?

Also, I had a lump/raised area around my stoma during the time I had my ostomy, and I'm wondering if that usually evens out and goes back to a more normal-looking stomach over time.

Any insight or personal experiences would be really appreciated.

The lump/raised area around your stoma sounds like a parastomal hernia. That won't go away unless the surgeon did something to fix it when he reversed you.

Hi. I had an emergency ileostomy in February, and I was told by the consultant and the surgeon that I should prepare myself for it being permanent, which is something I am only now starting to accept.

I have just been to my first in-person post-op appointment, and I was very shocked when the doctor told me that a reversal is feasible. 😲

Only because they had left a decent amount of my rectum behind. He explained that it is possible to connect the end of my small bowel to this rectum.

I asked if I would have any control over my movements. To an extent, yes, he said. But as I have no large bowel left at all, any output would be watery, and I could expect to go 4-6 times a day. This would be very restrictive to me. We go away quite a lot, and I wouldn't want the risk of accidents.

I declined. I think I'll be better off just accepting this new life; I have more control over this than I would have with a watery bum.

A good friend of mine has just had a reversal operation, but he had some large bowel left. It has gone great for him, and he's very happy that he had it done.

Good luck with everything.

Tony

First things first: Congratulations on your reversal! I had my colostomy reversed in June so it’s been a little over five months for me.

I can’t speak to the lump around your stoma since I didn’t have that, but I can tell you that it took about three or so weeks for my stoma hole to completely close. I had six staples for it - two toward each end and two in the middle, so essentially I had three open holes. The middle one was pretty stubborn and a bit leaky so after my staples were removed I just had to keep a large (very large) bandaid over it.

In terms of body image: my belly looks way different than before. My colostomy was from a ruptured colon from diverticulitis. That was emergency surgery so I have a nice long scar from my belly button to just above my pubic bone. Unfortunately my surgeon had to go right back in there for the reversal, but he was very nice to somehow clean up the size (width) of the scar from the first surgery. Of course I have one from the reversal that is the same length. I’ve been using ScarAway (what my surgeon recommended) to fade it along with the scar from the stoma hole, but I have come around to being okay with it. I would have died without the first surgery, and if the scar is the price I pay, so be it. Will I ever wear a bikini again? I would say right now I’m not there yet, but I think by next summer I will be.

I also have a little poochy puff (I don’t know how else to describe it) where the surgery happened, right below my belly button. I don’t love that but it flattens out when I put on my underwear or a pair of pants. Who knows what that is, but again, I’ve come to accept it.

If I’m being honest, I had more concerns about how I looked with the bag (could people see it?) than now.

Don’t forget that it’s just been a week and it takes awhile to adjust to things. Don’t be hard on yourself. Think back to when you got the colostomy and how long it took you to adjust to that. After my reversal, I was obsessed with trying to get to whatever a normal poop schedule would be. By the time that all settled I was really able to shift to what I look like now and start working on that, mostly with the ScarAway.

Anyway, hope this helps and I’m here if you want to continue the conversation. Good luck!