Post Bowel Cancer Care.
Hi All. My partner had a 6 hour bowel cancer Operation on Nov 12th 2020. The surgical team were able to remove the tumour successfully and all post Op biopsies came back clear. He does not require Chemo or Radiography. It took 2 months to find a stoma bag that worked for Michael. The stoma bag fills up fairly quickly even though Michael has been taken Imodium for over 2 months now. He is not getting any sleep as he is terrified the stoma bag will overflow and burst. He is also very hoarse since coming out of hospital. It may be because he was ventilated for 6 hours during surgery or it may be because he was tubed twice post Op as a result of the Stoma Bag not working initially in hospital. Has anyone else experienced this. We have been told that it will settle in time .3 months later and Michael has no energy from lack of sleep. Any advice on how to boost his energy levels or how to reduce the stoma bag filling up so quickly would be grateful. I wish you all every success on your road to recovery.
Hi there Pat! My mom had a similar situation. Regarding the stoma bag, like that it took months until we finally found a good fit as the stoma heals it's changes size. Also we had the added challenge of my mom developing a huge hernia right underneath the stoma. Regarding his fear of it leaking I know my mom struggled for awhile with sleep as she would need to be emptying it 2 to 3 times during the night as it would fill up so so quickly! And if you allow it to fill too much before emptying it's likely to remove from the skin. The only thing i would say is after about 4 months things settled. Her bag didn't fill as quickly and she can now just empty before bed and no issues through the night so she is now sleeping through. It took time & hopefully things will settle for him. It definately did get easier.