Good Morning,
Looking for any and all advice possible, My dad is currently struggling with the output of his Stoma.
This is the start of the 3rd week now with bouts of Diarrhoea. We can go 8 hours with no output, then all of a sudden, fill 2 bags in 15 minutes.
Often changing through the night, 2 or 3 times.
Have been to the stoma nurses and also A&E, was kept in for 6 hours on a drip of fluids and antibiotics.
We were given the standard advice of bland foods, stay hydrated, no caffeine, eat jelly babies, marshmallows, apple sauce, rice etc.
Doesn't seem to work, we have doubled up on loperamide. Took 4 x 2 ML before bed last night and at 5:45 this morning filled 2 bags.
Struggling with the answers here and its my brothers wedding in 10 days, doesn't seem to be light after 3 weeks?
Can anyone offer a suggestion or have had the same experience?
Radio for 5 weeks, Chemo (Tablet form) before Operation 11 September 2018, 12 rounds of Chemo after the OP. Finished Chemo little over 6 weeks ago.
Hi, and welcome on this your first visit to stoma support and I'm sorry to read about your dad, having diarrhoea for anyone is not a pleasant experience but for a pouch wearer it's unbearable.
Normally I would be suggesting everything that the stoma care nurses have suggested to try and stem the diarrhoea but they don't seem to be working and I am wondering if your dads GP has organised some tests to try and pin point the cause, does you dad have any other symptoms such as
I know that you have been given advice of keeping hydrated, being dehydrated can be serious if not recognised and treated quickly
Signs of dehydration in adults can include:
You should also contact your GP in the situations outlined below, as they may mean that he is at risk of, a more serious problem.
Have you checked to see
Is your dad
Has dad
Is he
Does
Has dad
Does he
If you suspect or see any of the above you should contact your dads GP and in the case of poo that has blood in it or very dark or black you should take a sample to the GP for examination.
If you suspect your dad is dehydrated you can either up his fluids by drinking water, squash but not fizzy drinks or alcohol or you can buy from the pharmacist and supermarkets sachets of dehydration mix that should be added to water.
Checking the wee for hydration (see charts below)
Nice and clear okay
Very dark risk of dehydration
Dad should be mindful that having severe diarrhoea will result in a loss of salts and minerals from his body and these should be replaced by increasing his salt intake and this can be done by eating a bag of crisps each day, he might need to take a mineral supplement and this should be discussed with a pharmacist (does your dads GP surgery have an in house clinical pharmacist that he can talk to if not any high street pharmacist will advise)
How often does your dad eat during the day and how often.
The general advice is to have quite a few small meals during the course of the day and have a cut off time (5-6 pm) when he has his last meal of the day to allow the food to pass through him and hopefully allow him to empty his bag at bedtime and get an disturbed sleep.
Check with the stoma nurse to see if he can change to a larger capacity bag which might help. (I used a large capacity bag for 6 years but had to change make of bag because of yet another problem to a "maxi" bag and boy do I see the difference in size and capacity) Don't get confused with maxi and extra large they are different capacities)
The only other thing that I can think of for your dad to stop eating for a day or two and only having drinks which can include Ensure or Fortisip, to see if that would control the flow, you could also ask the GP if he can take more Loperamide than the packet leaflet as it can be increased under medical supervision.
I hope that you can get this under control and you can all enjoy your brothers wedding.
Ian
I should mention that I am NOT MEDICALLY trained and cannot give medical advice or suggest products that can be taken internally.
