There are lots of differences between the types
of stoma’s people have. They also have
them for lots of different medical reasons and each has its own specific
purpose and philosophy of how to live and work with them. There is a lot of
confusion on the differences and the terminology is just crazy. So I want to go
through and maybe clear up a few things about the placement of Stoma and what
that means for the person who has it.
The first stoma we will talk about is a
Colostomy. A colostomy is an operation that creates an opening for the colon,
or large intestine, through the abdomen. A colostomy may be temporary or
permanent If you have a colostomy and irrigate your bowels, you might not need
to empty your bag for a day or two! Now it does depend on the size of the bag
and I like the variety that ostomy supplies carries. That’s pretty convenient! But if you aren’t
irrigating your bowel then you may be emptying 1-3 times a day or however often
you would have been going to the bathroom before your surgery. Now this is
different from having an ileostomy.
Wickipedea describes this as this: “Ileostomy is
a stoma constructed by bringing the end or loop of the small intestine out onto
the surface of the skin, or the surgical procedure which creates this opening.
Intestinal waste passes out of the ileostomy and is collected in an artificial
external pouching system which is adhered to the skin” Most ileostomates will
empty their bag 4-10 times per day, but some may need to empty more often if
they have liquid output. I find myself emptying around seven or more times per
day, but I also let my bag fill up past the 1/3 mark. Then there is also a urostomy.
A urostomy is a surgical procedure that creates a
stoma (artificial opening) for the urinary system. There are specialty bags for each of these
ostomy situations and I still would say to check out ostomy supplies
to see which ones work best for your situation. A urostomy bag may need to be
drained several times a day depending on the capacity. The volume of urine
collected throughout the day should be closely matted with the volume of
liquids you consume.
A urostomate who drinks several liters of water should
expect several liters of output in a 24h span. So now you hopefully are a
little more informed about what is out there and the differences between stomas
and placements!
