Best illustration for ileostomy

Week 10

Warning gross stoma picture at the bottom!!!

So the sad reality is I don't wear slimming clothing.







As of today I am down 46.5 lbs. can you tell? Nope, me either.

The sad fact of the matter is I am not 100% in my diet either and I don't care.

I'm doing about 3 of 4 shakes and a meal. Not a HUGE meal or a super fatty meal but a meal. Last night with a baked sweet potato and about a 1/2 cup of chicken, broccoli and orzo pasta meal that Liz made. It was good. Did I have all four shakes? Nope. I don't even think I had four. I tossed my coffee 1/2 way through. I just could NOT do it. I had a biscuit with jelly. You would think I'm eating 1/2 a chicken with Butch's response. Honestly. Who the hell cares if I'm skinny!! Just him and the doctor and I think he cares more about it than the freaking doctor. Gimme a break!! Why not just love me for me??? Arge!!!

Yeah. Hitting another wall today. My stoma or rather the surrounding skin is PISSED. Not happy. Bleeding and miserable. 😭😭😭😭

And honest so am I.



Someone on my stoma group said it looks like a reaction to the flange. OK I changed that today. Going with coloplast plastic looking flange for a few days. Next change is next Tuesday with the home health care nurse.

OR I may wait it out to Wednesday for the wound nurse at Mayo to look at. Who knows. That may be a bit long considering how irritated that area is.

Poor pitiful me, hu?? 😭😳

Two weeks to the day from surgery

Thursday I ran away with Liz to the Movies. We saw The Hitman's Bodyguard. It was decent. Entertaining and made me laugh a few times.


I did bring a blanket to the theatre. I was glad as was Liz as she was snuggling up about half way through the movie 😄 I shared the blanket with her. She was happy!!

Friday. Shower day. I decided to try the whole "use press and seal" to keep bags dry.


Hum. It didn't work!!
The Orange tape is waterproof tape. And I guess I got some press and seal to where the tape wasn't on my skin. Sigh. I had a WET bandage from my drain area AND a damp bag as well.

Oh well the bandage on the drain area was changed and the bag dries quickly enough. It was worth a shot AND saved the wafer on the bag from getting damp, so good enough.

And with that I headed out to mail Noah his Donald Duck back as well as a surprise. Then headed to moms house to see her and Dad. Poor Dad is still sick from his pneumonia bout this week. He's really tired and weak but doing OK. Poor dad and poor mom as she's bored to tears. 😄

Then home to relax and rest up.

More questions answered an update!!

My hernia is a parastomal hernia. It's at the stoma sight. It's a bump around the whole stoma. Kinda like a huge punk knot at the stoma sight. They happen because they don't cut the muscles they just shove them apart and put the intestines through the hole. Sounds like a recipe for disaster as there are a lot of guts behind that there wall!! So, I'll have to have THAT repaired too.



Looking straight down on that side. Really punked out a bit more noticeable.


Squared up to the sink. It's just one side. It's not HORRIBLE and not huge. I saw one on the sites the other day that literally looked like a breast!! Yikes!!

Are you counting the future surgeries? Sigh. I am. I have a reversal and a hernia repair (if I'm lucky they can do those both at the same time) AND I have gallstones that will have to be dealt with in time!!

The binder is to support the stoma area and the hernia area. So it doesn't get bigger. I have a full belly one from the hospital but they cut a hole for the stoma area as it has no nerve endings and can't feel if it's getting irritated or killed by pressure. So we avoid pressure. It DID have the added bonus of keeping the drain tubes held in place well :)

My burbling stoma is on my right side. I say that as it just burped loudly and wettly. Ha! It's funny at times but I can see how folks would be disconcerted by it. Ha! They sell "mufflers" which are layers of soft material to muffle the sounds that can emit from the body. The plus? ZERO smell. Hahaha

If you think apple coring sounded bad, the hospital report on how HARD it was to disconnect my bowels from around my spleen area sounded horrible. Apparently I'm very well attached. Well or was!

As of today I am tube free all the way!! I had my drain pulled today. Yay me!!!! I so excited !!!


Ok so this is the diary of sorts of output from the drain...








Started out pretty high the. You see it dwindling down to NOTHING in the end! It's been a trial in patience!!

So THIS is the tube that was IN me. From tip to stitch area. Compare to my huge hand!! Not good enough to know HOW long that is? Me either, so I measured it!





19" of tubing in my groin, rectal area. Yeah. That's an image isn't it? Yeah, it was run through my body and back to the area where they removed all of the tumor and surrounding tissues. Ewh, hu? Well it had to be done! Glad they know to do this now!! Either way it did the trick and helped. Me heal. NOT sad to see it go however!! The first tug was met with a "holy mother" comment! The 2nd pull wasn't nearly as painful. Whew! It's OUT!!!


The patch - and a neighborhood residual healing spot from surgery.



The bathroom trash looks like medical waste area between left over stuff that needed to be chucked from the catheter time as well.

I DID finally pick up wet wipes and they were great for the bag change today as well.

Today was a good example of "listen to your body". I have a feeling things weren't right on the appliance change from Monday.

Well it wasn't. My stoma had changed shapes AND I tried a new approach with paste rather than the ring.

Well, apparently that didn't work well and there were quite a few spots that had contact with fecal matter. Lordie.

So. Back to the ring and hoping the irritation doesn't get things stirred up. Sigh. Steep learning curve but NOW I know what leaking feels like. And I only let it "go" for a day or so!! Hopefully

Thoughts on pain levels

So, I'm overall happy with the recovery process. Could have been SO much worse!

I was thinking it would be worse than my c-section, natural birth and or hysterectomy. It wasn't worse than any of those. It was different for sure, but the pain was on par with the c-section. But not as quite as long lasting on the pain scale and sitting after was similar to the hysterectomy. Easy to move around. But the poke holes were painful.

The only hiccup was the bladder. As I said, could have been worse. I had asked a few how it compared. Most said it was worse than c-section.

Meh. I think c-sections slightly worse as it's open and lots of flab to deal with after the baby is gone. Then again there's a lot of flab from life at this point 😜

Adventures of a bored patient.

Today I'm going out. What???? Yes, I'm going OUT. I'm not asking. I'm just going.


I chose a flowing shirt that is a little longer than the rest. And capris with pockets.


Can't see a thing. I do have my binding on for the starting hernia.


The only thing that can be seen is the tip of my bag if I raise my arm.... simple
Fix, don't raise my arm! 😄


And we're off!!!

Ok I didn't make it too long. I went in shopped the dollar spot as it was 70% off. Had fun there then went straight to the baby area for a belly band. But changed my mind as they were $25 and really I have two binders at the house. Do I need another? Nawh. I will wait and if the nurse thinks I need a hernia belt we shall get it then as it would be covered by insurance.

So two cases of wet wipes. Two cases?? Well I figure I will use them between stoma care and bowel training in a few months I'm sure I'll work my way through them. That and I use them in my car all the time anyway.


So here is a lovely road who was hopping around the garage door. I helped him and nudged him towards the grass 😄

Then I pooped out and went in to watch Game of Thrones. I told Liz I would watch it and catch up with it. I've finally finished season 1

I also heard from home health. I will be getting my dram out tomorrow!!! Whooooohooooooo!!

Potty update

Well after the catheter was pulled yesterday I didn't want to jinx it by talking about it this time.

So they pulled it at 1:30. I was peeing about one time an hour. Not a LOT but well more than last time AND more importantly is that I was comfortable. I want thinking constantly that I NEEDED to pee but couldn't. So I was OK being left to my own devices. I didn't call home health in. I didn't have them place the catheter again.

I woke up two times I. The night to pee. I can live with that while we're adjusting and getting things back in line. Ah. Relief. No more catheter!!!

Yay!!!

Questions answered

Do you have to sleep flat on your back? In a recliner ? Twenty-two pillows for support in all the right places?

Sleeping normally in my bed. Rolling from side to side. A bit more difficult with the catheter as I had to try to keep it unkinked at the top where it's softer rubber. The drain has been pulled a few times thus there is one stitch that was fully pulled out (youch!!) and it's hanging on by one very irritated stitch. But I just grab that part of my belly and roll. Sometimes the tube is twisted and get really ouchie but it generally calms.
😄

My poop pillow HAS been used to support the drain on and off throughout the journey as well




The stoma is placed to handle my movement and in a good spot to roll from side to side. No tummy sleeping for a while I'm afraid as I'm not supposed to keep pressures on the stoma as it's sensitive and has no nerve endings to tell me if it's getting too much pressure. So for now it s back and sides. Which I'm good with.

I'm the hospital I was sleeping reclined with feet up however knowing I was going to a flat bed I started side sleeping on a flat bed the last night. It WAS nice to raise the head to get out however not necessary once I got out as I would just roll to a seated position. I'm still very movable until my stitch catches. Then I couldn't sit OR put the recliner down or anything. It was laughable that night. I couldn't move!! Poor stitch!! Poor me. Butch got some pillows shoved behind me and popped the recliner down and I eventually got past that one. Lesson learned - no more recliner until the stitch is gone!! 😜

The poop pillow has been used to support the drain on and off throughout the journey as well.

I sit in the love seat sideways so I'm on one side of my hip taking weight off my coccyx. Why? Because it's a bit achy. Not horribly so, but achy none the less. Wonder why - ha!

Cored like a apple and stapled back together. Yeah. It's not happy. The report actually states the stapler was introduced through the anus to put the rectum together with the colon. Poor body. Poor anus!! My poor body was just pummeled. BUT even not being young I'm ever so grateful for Inheriting Dads high pain threshold because every time I say where I am with recovery everyone looks at me like "wow". So I'm doing good and a a very tough old broad!!

Adventures of a sleepy bladder

Well. I had the catheter pulled again today.

I was hopeful but really NOT wanting to jinx it.

Yeah. The good news is that I am peeing. Not great copious amounts of pee but about every hour or so I'm peeing just a little. Enough to color the bowl yellow a little. Probably not enough but I'm OK with going every few hours or less.

I guess this is just what success will look like today. Nothing grand and not totally normal but enough to call this a success.

Baby steps, baby steps. I guess I'm too old to go through such trauma and just bounce right back up again, eh? Guess I'll tolerate a drowsy bladder for this evening and give it every opportunity to empty fully. I will NOT be calling home health back tonight if I can possibly avoid it!!!

Could be that my body is "clenchie" from pain from this damn drain. Sometimes when I sit the stitches will pull and it's all I can do to sputter out curses. Sigh.

Yeah I'm over this stuff. Really tired of it all. Let me pee like a normal person and sit without fear of pulling a stitch and I'll be a lot more chipper 😖

Optifast week 9 and a few days

Ok back on the shakes. I'm down by 43 or 44 lbs. I weighed myself prior to my shower this morning. Then I thought of pictures and kind of chucked. So here you go!!



Ok it's sad that even with swelling from surgery I'm smaller than in the beginning. Or is that good? Who knows.



Here's the reality of what's under that dress 😜. Hopefully I'll get TWO of those bags removed today!!!!

I mostly weighed myself to know how the drain removal goes for me. I was told if I'm retaining more than I should my weight will give it away. So. We weighed.

I was surprised because I weighed 37lbs down when I went into surgery. I then weighed in 33lbs down while in recovery. So basically swelling worth 4 lbs. now I'm 43lbs down as of today. And that's with eating real food in the hospital. Not much, but I was eating real food.

Lately I'm having one real food meal a day (eggs or low fiber veggies) due to a screw up in not picking up my meal replacement shakes. Oh well. I kind of like having a bit of real food. 😄