Stomach Laying: Does it affect stoma retraction?

Hello to all .... Question, does it really cause the stoma to retract if you lay on your stomach? I've been told that it's a bad thing to do. Sometimes I wake up and I'm on my stomach. Does it really cause it to retract? Please share your thoughts. Thanks so much in advance for your response.

I am well healed (3 years) and do not think there is any problem. I mostly sleep on my side, but do lay on my stomach sometimes.

I've had my stoma for 11 years. Like xnine, I don't think there's a problem. Sometimes my stoma retracts when I'm standing, sitting, etc.

I cannot see that it would make a great deal of difference one way or the other. I wear a fairly tight hernia belt which tends to compress the visual part of the stoma but it has never done any harm. Cold water shrinks it and conversely, hot bath water expands it, otherwise it seems to have a heaving life of its own that I have very little control over.

Best wishes

Bill 

Thanks so much.

The problem, as I see it, is if you fall asleep and you have an active bowel, then you probably will be awakened by a mess!

X_

Doesn't seem to bother mine. Now a very active night, sure it could be an issue whether I sleep on it or not.

Retract? Like, "Oh, we did this surgery but if you sleep wrong it will negate everything?"

Nah... that little bit of intestine that they sewed onto the outside of your tummy is not going to suddenly un-heal and slurp back into your colon.

Worst thing of sleeping on your tummy is that all the poo mushes up against your stoma... but you were going to wash it off anyway. But if you poo a lot and are sleeping tightly on your bag, your poo might be forced to exit however possible... like, past the side seals of your bag.

Stomas are pretty hardy. It's the bag that you need to watch :)

Thank you for sharing the information

I go to bed with an empty pouch and almost always go to sleep lying on the pouch. I feel that greatly reduces the likelihood that I will be awakened during the night by a pouch full of gas. The pouch receives solid output either just before I wake up in the morning or shortly after I get up and move around. I think that this degree of "regularity" is achieved by taking two senna tablets at bedtime. The bowel is "trained" to a diurnal cycle, just like training a child. Early on after colostomy output was at more random times and will be much more "irregular" if I skip the senna laxative. The "cycle" is also affected by how much liquid I drink the previous day. If I get dehydrated, especially in hot weather, I may go 24 to 48 hours without output. Summer's coming, drink a lot!

The occasional accident almost always occurs after a day or so of no action constipation with more "explosive" output. Or sometimes after too long (five or more days) between changes when the wafer adhesive weakens. Or after a long airplane trip, it takes me a day or more to recover normal bowel habit.

I can't think of anything good or nice to say about having a colostomy for ten years, except that I am alive and well and didn't die of colorectal cancer, and that sure counts for a lot!

I've never heard of this, but then I often wake up and I'm partway lying on my couch. I've not noticed any difference in mine since its beginning. I'm curious what others have to say.