Hi everyone. My name is Andrés, and I'm 33 years old. I had emergency surgery for acute diverticulitis, resulting in a closed colostomy. The prognosis for a reversal procedure is positive. I'd like to hear your opinions on whether it's the best option. According to the surgeon, I only had a small amount of my bowel removed, approximately 15 cm of my bowel. I'm healthy and active, and everythi ...

I recently did a 10-day trek in Nepal and have had my ileostomy for a year. I learned a few things that I wanted to share with the group.
Make sure you have a stoma guard to protect your stoma! I had one but did not attach it to my bag because it's a pain to empty. After a few days of hiking 10+ miles a day, I did my first bag change and my stoma was 4 times its normal size and had a mushroom ...

I have had my ileostomy since 1986 due to UC. I had a great stoma therapist prior to and after surgery, and I know that has made a HUGE impact on my recovery, acceptance, or whatever you want to call it. Because of her, I am pretty much an open book and have always been willing to help other ileostomates when questions and concerns arise. Which brings me to this posting.
Once again, I have bee ...

Hi everyone! I first posted here back in March of 2024, and it's been a wild ride.
Last November, I had a completely clear PET scan and was able to reverse my ileostomy surgery. I had no idea how difficult it was going to be to wake my colon back up and have all the organs down there play nice with each other. I was in the hospital for almost 3 weeks just waiting to poop. It finally happened, ...

This message is for debyoung3566.
I went through a lot of the same issues you are having since I had my ileostomy replaced with a BCIR in 2009.
I'm not sure what products are there now. Have you followed up with an ostomy nurse? They may be able to
help you.
I too live in Vero. We could meet for coffee at one of the Paneras; we can compare notes. I'm not sure if I would be
of any help. Like yo ...

It's been a while since I've posted - been on a social media sanity break. When I did check in, I had over 260 unread posts, and instead of trying to reply to them all, I thought I'd say welcome to all the new folks on the site!
You have found yourself in a club nobody wants to be in. But in my case, as with many others here, we would not be alive without our stomas, so here we are.
When I had ...

Tomorrow at 8 a.m., I am having the ileostomy reversed. I had to come in and say thank you to everyone who has helped here along the way. I had some pretty low points on this journey, and this community was so supportive and helpful. I appreciate everyone who has chimed in with advice and words of encouragement.

Hey Ostomates, hope you are all having a good day.
What kind of bathroom deodorizer do you all use? Is there a special one for us that works well without being too highly scented? I have tried so many different ones and even tried expensive body spray which didn't work... With an Ileostomy, bathroom odor lingers for a long time after emptying, which is quite often whether I eat or not, and I a ...

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've been on here. It's good to see some familiar names and faces. I hope you're all doing really well. I miss you guys.
I wanted to come on and mention something I read yesterday that I had never heard about when I had my colostomy and ileostomy: the ostomy irrigation and ostomy cap. I think it's geared towards colostomies from what I gathered. But appare ...

I was pleased to be able to Read The Study Report of the previously Closed Clinical Trial of TIES III 'continent' implant device: - Which I have copied below courtesy of Publishers NHS Health Research Authority.
Prof Jayne makes the point that as the Clinical Trial was stopped early - a decision reflecting the need to redesign TIES and continue potentially as a single arm open study [[it w ...

How long should I go between appliance changes? I have a colostomy so I know that differs greatly from having an ileostomy due to frequency and consistency of output. I've heard that the longer you go between full changes the better it is for your skin. Just curious as to how long some of you all wait.