Hernia or Hema-stoma?

I’m seeing my surgeon Tuesday but I’m trying to figure out what I’m dealing with. I’m hoping to be more informed about what questions to ask so any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And tbh I’m getting a little worked up about the whole deal.

I have a lump under the upper right side of my stoma that has suddenly gotten bigger (or moved depending on what it turns out to be) and is causing the lower left side to dip almost under my skin. I finally received the convex wafers and tried my first one yesterday. It wasn’t easy to apply with the lump but with extra tape it’s staying on and helping to keep Stanley from going into hiding.

I’m hoping to get some help with what a hernia can feel like since there’s a good chance I’m still dealing with a chunk of hematoma that’s been shifting now that I’m upright and moving more.

My question to those of you who have experienced a hernia is whether or not you have or have had discomfort/pain around your stoma when it’s active.

If my poop is even slightly thick it’s very uncomfortable to pass. If it takes a while to empty (I have slow transit issues) it actually becomes quite painful and continues to hurt even when the output gets thinner or stops.

Anyone else ever dealt with this?

I’m really trying to make this a simple(r) question but nothing about the past few months has been simple. Not to mention all the years leading up to it.

So if it’s helpful here’s a shorter version of what I tried to briefly describe in my profile.

Due to a surgical complication I ended up with a massive hematoma. This happened six weeks after the colostomy surgery and was directly below my new stoma and created a huge amount of swelling. I had a hard bubble under my belly as if half a honeydew had been slipped in while I was under.

At first they were telling me I’d just have to wait for all the swelling to go down and some of it was beginning to. Two weeks later something else came up and during that surgery they removed a lot but not all of the hematoma.

Apologies once again for the long post and all of the background.

Much Love, Many Blessings…

Pati

I can give you my experience. Probably not applicable to your situation. I have a sigmoid colostomy on my left side. My parastomal hernia pushes the stoma toward my belly button, on an angle. So my output always is on the right side of my bag. I have never felt pain. It is not getting bigger. I wear a Nu-Hope Corporation support belt most of the day. My output is never painful.

I had a CT scan. Result: A loop of small intestine is pushing up in area of my colostomy. I can see the loop from time to time, it's a pronounced bump. There is a small chance of the loop becoming restricted, but after 2 1/2 years, all is good. My hernia flattens out when I lay on my back or wear a support belt. This is called a "reducible" hernia. A hernia that does not flatten out is called an "irreducible" hernia.. and can cause problems.

A hernia can get bigger but it doesn't move around. I don't have pain with mine but some people do have pain so I don't think that will differentiate them for you.

Your doctor should be able to tell you by examining it. Likely it is a hematoma since you have a history of this but impossible to say for sure.

Thank you BB and Susan for sharing your experiences and clear explanations. As I suspected it sounds like it’s the hematoma since the lump is there even when I’m laying down. Hopefully there’s an easy solution since the convex wafer is doing it’s job and I’ve been able to keep the output thin enough to cause less pain. I’ll see what the surgeon has to say tomorrow and figure it out from there.

MLMB…

Pati