Hi my husband has to have an operation soon he had a large polyp which had cancer in he's worried about having a stoma . Does anyone have any knowledge of these
Welcome to the forum . It’s frightening for you both in the early days .
I can’t answer your question but we have a whole group on it . If you scroll down to the bottom of this page you will find it there . I will also give our good friend a tag as he knows a lot in this area and is extremely helpful .
There are many others here too who have experience and will be along to help . Feel free to ask anything that concerns you and I hope we can be of some support to you .
I'd like to give you my warm welcome to the online community and whilst I'm sorry that circumstances have brought you to our door, I'm pleased that you stopped by and felt able to reach out to us and now we can make the journey a little bit easier for you both.
We have many members all of whom will answer any questions you may have and share with you their experiences good or bad you'll get the true picture here.
The first thing you should do is join our Bowel (colon and rectal) cancer forum group and introduce yourself to the many friendly members by starting a new discussion or just simply reading about the experiences of others you should also join our Ileostomy, colostomy, urostomy and any other stoma support group we are lively group and all the members are like me, they live their life with the help of a stoma. Having a stoma is not too bad and will enable your husband (and you) to still enjoy all the activities that are enjoyed at present, having a stoma is no deterrent to living a normal life and when you join the stoma group I can give you the low down on everything you and your husband needs to know and it is probably the only group on here that openly talk about bodily functions or to put it another way we all talk poo. I can help with everything you need to know from changing a pouch, what items do you need, to diet in fact anything to do with having a stoma I'm here to help and advise you. Many members think this is strange when I say this but your husband should own his stoma and it should not own him and we can discuss this later on, you both will have lots of questions and doubts but with help of my fellow members we will try and make your journey a lot easier for you.
On either of the groups I've mentioned above you're free to ask us any questions you like and even if you consider it be a silly one just ask it anyway you'll be given an answer and it will stop you worrying and leave you to get on with the important things in your life.
I look forward to seeing you in the two groups very shortly, remember the name Bodach and give it a shout out when you need to know something I'm always about to help you.
My advice to your husband and of course yourself is simply stop worrying about having a stoma you'll be absolutely surprised by the number of people who lead a normal life with one and sometimes two, without any problems and I can see no reason for your husband not to be one of them.
Keep in touch and let us know how you are getting on we really do want to hear from you.
Ian
By clicking on the green text above will open up new pages for you and enable ti join the groups
Once the page opens
Click on Join this Group
Then when you are ready click on Start a discussion and you're good to go to ask anything you want
As Court has already said Ian aka Bodach is an expert on anything stoma and is so supportive to those with a stoma. I had one for 15 months after my op before having it reversed. I actually watched a clip on utube showing someone changing a bag but not everyone likes that approach. Your husband won’t be discharged from hospital until he is comfortable with his bag and the stoma nurses will support and guide him along the way.
Its daunting initially but I quickly got used to setting everything I needed out on the bathroom window sill and could change my bag every couple of days in about 5 minutes. Your hubby will soon get into a routine of the best time to do this.
Life can and will go on with a stoma and people who’ve had bad Bowel issues prior to this have found life so much better afterwards.
Please post with any concerns you have no matter how silly or embarrassing they may seem
Let the stoma be the least of your worries. I ended up with one for five months last year after cancer caused a complete obstruction in my bowel. My first reaction when the surgeon told me what they plan to do was one of horror (it was an emergency, so not much time to think about it). But then once it was done I very quickly got used to it, and as Karen said I could do a bag change in a very short time.
At work I preferred to be open about having it, but those people that I did not tell about it, had no idea! After I recovered from the surgery, I was able to do absolutely everything that I did prior to surgery. Sometimes careful consideration and planning was needed, and I was never without my emergency supplies (extra bags, etc). But it did not hold me back to do anything.
All the best, and let us know how your husband is getting on.
