Elape surgery and stoma for life

Hi Kevbo and welcome to our group.

I had a different surgery to the ELAPE, but nonetheless I have a permanent end colostomy. My children were adults when I had my surgery, so I don’t have experience of dealing with telling children, but there may be others who can post and share their experience and advice. 

The fact that you are young should stand you in good stead for the recovery. My surgery was more extensive and I was older so it was quite tough for me! I also have a urostomy as I’ve had my bladder removed too, but I got used to having two stomas very quickly. It’s just adapting to a different way of life really and going to the loo in a different way! 

As a woman, I haven’t had to adapt my clothing-I wear the same as I always have done, including underwear. The only thing I have changed is from a swimsuit to a tankini to go swimming as it’s easier having 2 bags. Basically life is just the same though. 

I had my surgery in March 2020 so it will soon be 5 years of living with stomas for me, and I’ve never regretted my surgery. Is there anything in particular you’d like to know about? I find it easy to live with 2 bags, and for me they saved my life. If there’s anything specific you’d like to ask, please do so-we are all happy to share our experiences-some in the group have ileostomies, and others like myself have a colostomy with the added bonus of a urostomy! There are differences in how an ileostomy and a colostomy behave, so just make sure you are reading about colostomies. 

I hope you’ll find the group here helpful-there are lots of tips and advice we can give you. 

Sarah xx

I also had a different surgery but I came out with 2 ostomies (colostomy and urostomy). Learning to care for the stimas takes a bit of learning.  Everyone is different and you will need to learn to adapt for your body. But after that, it's smooth sailing. I've had my ostomies only 4.5 months and it is already easy and natural for me. 

I can't help much with the children. I'd be inclined to provide simple, age appropriate answers if they ask. But I wouldn't spend much time or energy explaining the stoma. They will quickly come to accept it and will ask more sophisticated questions as they age. If you treat it as natural, they will see it the same way.