I've had mine for 12 years. It is served me well.
Bill Ray,12 years post
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:42:00 -0700
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] Re: colostomy?
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
dear Q, Don't Freak out. Last Sept. I had to get a supra-pubic catheter,a J
tube and a colostomy so they could remove part of my stomach. Now I wish I had
the colostomy long ago. 36 years of watching my diet. (wondering how I got a
damn ulcer). You have to let gas out of the bag now and then, it's called
burping it. I still use acidophylus to keep the stool well formed. That way I
can put two needle holes in the high side of the bag and not mess with burping
since I only get two aid visits a day and I can't burp it myself. I am using
more cologne. I wish you luck.
john
From: Quadius <[email protected]>
To: quad-list <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 8:37 PM
Subject: [QUAD-L] Re: colostomy?
I forgot to mention I am just about 17 years post injury. That will happen in
another couple of weeks.
On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 8:00 PM, Quadius <[email protected]> wrote:
Well, I'm back asking questions again. I went in for my consultation about a
week and a half ago and unfortunately I've had too many days of feeling bad
wasn't able to get back with you all.
In the consultation for the ileovesicostomy the doctor noted that I had had a
previous doctor recommend that I think about doing a colostomy in the near
future. Well, now they're wondering if I want to consider doing a colostomy at
the same time I am having the ileovesicostomy performed. I'm about 90% sure
I'm going to have the ileovesicostomy, because I really don't see any
alternative.
As for the colostomy, everyone I talk to down here seems to think it's a good
idea, including at least one quadriplegic who has one as well as
ileovesicostomy.
When the doctor made this recommendation I was having a terrible time with my
bowels. Fortunately he was able to diagnose several of my problems and I have
improved quite a bit since that time. I am still having difficulties though.
The list of fruit and vegetables I can't eat or can only eaten very limited
quantities is much higher than the list the list I am able to eat. My lactose
intolerance has gotten progressively worse, to the point where I almost
completely have to eradicate dairy products if possible. I have difficulty
processing tomato sauces and am having trouble almost every time I go out to be
in a restaurant.
Let me put this into perspective. I don't really have problems with
incontinence, but when I do have problems it's usually terrible pain followed
up by very loose stool. My bowel program has gotten much longer over the last
year and a half. A lot of this is because my body produces a lot of mucus
after the stool has passed. We usually check about every 15 minutes and sadly
my bowel program is now averaging around 3 1/2 hours. We can probably cut it
down to two hours and 45 minutes if I didn't worry too much about the mucus and
then had my caregiver cleaned up in the morning, but she asked small fingers
and I also risk having the mucus attack while I am seated in the wheelchair if
I do this.
I'm leaning towards having the procedure done, but I haven't really heard that
many negatives other than the few comments I saw all on one forum. I know darn
well there's got to be negatives, so I'd appreciate if you could pass them on
to me.
One of the quadriplegics who I talk to last year told me about some sort of
burping, but he didn't elaborate. I do not have the ability to move my hands
or arms at all, so I don't know what would happen if I need to do something
like burping.
I'm going to continue to search the web, but I would appreciate some feedback.
You guys have been great on the ileovesicostomy and I really do appreciate it.
These are, as all of you know, decisions which we have to live with. Sure I
guess they are reversible, but I have known one person who had his colostomy
reversed after he went into remission and he had a horrific time getting his
bowels to work properly once again. In fact, he ended up in the ICU on life
support at one point.
Thanks everyone,
Quadius
PS hopefully there are too many problems with this e-mail. I am in need of a
microphone change. :-) actually a soundcard would probably be better, but I
need something which improves my accuracy.
