I'm sure someone who has been through this will be online soon to advise you. All I can offer you is the sympathy of a man who is in a similar situation to your mother, though a little further along the road: on Monday I'm having a Hartman's procedure, which will result in a permanent stoma. The one bit of encouragement I can give you from my experience is that the stoma nurses are amazing, or at least the ones in Great Western Hospital, Swindon, are! I felt really encouraged after the hour they spent with my wife and me, to talk about what having a stoma would mean - much less impact on my life than I'd anticipated, at least when I get used to it. And you'll find many encouraging stories elsewhere on this site. I hope all goes well for your mother: I can still vividly remember the moment when I was given my diagnosis after what I thought would be a routine colonoscopy.
Hi. I have had a permanent colostomy since July 2019. I was really upset when I was told I had to have it. My lovely colorectal nurse said that it was saving my life and from that moment I decided that I would just get on with it. I really don't have a problem with it. It didn't take long to get the hang of pouch changing once I was home from hospital. I work and don't have a problem with that either. It does come as a shock to begin with but it really isn't as daunting as it seems once you get used to it.
My 87 year old mum diagnosed with similar 2 weeks ago. She’s longing for the op will make such a difference to her quality of life. District nurses and specialist nurse are brilliant - answering all our questions, checking my mother every 3 or 4 days. No advice - just ahead of you a wee bit on this journey.
I had abdominoperineal resection surgery just over a week ago and have a permanent stoma as a result, the initial thought of it is actually a lot worse than I'm finding the reality of it, I've had very little pain or discomfort from the stoma itself, there are no nerve endings in your bowel so you don't have any feeling of the stoma when cleaning it etc, its moist and feels a bit like the inside of your lips.
After the first couple of times cleaning it in hospital I felt confident, and as has been said the nurses are fantastic.
Thanks for your good wishes. It turned out that they were able to remove the obstruction from my colon without needing to create a stoma, so recovery after the op has been quicker than I'd expected. I still have chemotherapy to come on my lungs, but I'm feeling positive after the good experience with the op. Hope all is going well for your mother.
