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The
Evansville Ostomy News
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Contents:

I'M ALIVE...YOU’RE ALIVE… WE BOTH HAVE OSTOMIES
WHAT I DO NOT LIKE ABOUT MY OSTOMY
KEEP A MEDICAL JOURNAL
EMPLOYMENT ISSUES
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF?
FOR COLOSTOMATES
ODOR MANAGEMENT
DON’T NEGLECT INTESTINAL BLOCKAGES
THE WINTER OF LIFE

Volume 34, Number 4  January, 2007

I'M ALIVE...YOU’RE ALIVE… WE BOTH HAVE OSTOMIES
Via: Ostomy Support group of Central Indiana
They didn’t perform this surgery on us just for fun. They didn’t call it “elective surgery”. They hustled us off to the operating room to save our lives. They told our husbands, wives and other loved ones that it was necessary...or we would die...maybe not today, but sometime very soon...too soon. So now we have an ileostomy, a colostomy, an ileal conduit (or maybe two of these) and we are alive. We are alive because of this surgery and we can accept this or reject it. We can live a secret sheltered life. We can be embarrassed and not talk about our “affliction”...or...we can say “thank you” for another chance to live this life in a helpful, hopeful way. We can tell people that an ostomy is not the end of a normal life. Sometimes they may have a loved one who must face this surgery. We can hope that because we were “normal, happy, well-adjusted and alive”, and told someone about our ostomy, their loved one would fare better, perhaps, than we did. Try it...wouldn’t it make you feel good to think someone could benefit from your experience?

WHAT I DO NOT LIKE ABOUT MY OSTOMY
by Don Korbin, Via: Solona County Ostomy News & Chippewa Valley Ostomy Association
My colon was removed in March. It’s really gone. I know, because my surgeon brought it to my hospital room during lunch one day, six and one-half pounds in a glass beaker. It looked like a brisket. I wasn’t hungry. I opted for a continent ileostomy. So now I’m a kangaroo of sorts, except my pouch is on the inside. Getting used to the new plumbing hasn’t been bad. Considering the shape I was in before surgery, I’d say this new system is better than the original, with one exception. The concern isn’t the stoma. Mine is less than the size of a dime...it disappears beneath the briefest of swim suits. It’s not the diet...I have no dietary restrictions. Nor is it physical limitation...I’m even contemplating cross-country skiing on Oregon’s Mt. Bachelor. No, what I dislike is the operation’s effect on one of my favorite pastimes. I used to spend many quiet moments sitting in the bathroom. Now I don’t. Dr. Koch’s efficient catheter system makes it unnecessary. A lifetime reading habit has been shattered. THAT’S what I don’t like about my colectomy!

KEEP A MEDICAL JOURNAL
Via: Cleveland Ostomy Association
Often a problem has been nagging at your body for weeks or months. Sometimes a piece of equipment doesn’t work properly. When you finally break down and go to the doctor, or consult an ET nurse, you find that they ask questions about the history of the problem that you can’t answer. As a result, their diagnosis is not based on complete information. To avoid a faulty or inadequate diagnosis, it is wise to write down the symptoms of problems as they occur. Often, you will find that by writing down these symptoms and the events which precede them, you, yourself, can spot some obvious solution (or at least, causes). A medical journal can help you to avoid false assumptions about your problems; it can also aid you when similar problems crop up in the future. Accurate information is always welcomed by your doctor or ET.

EMPLOYMENT ISSUES
Via: Better Together Newsletter, Valley News & GB News Review
Back to work having a stoma has little bearing on your employment. Most people with ostomies return to their jobs after surgery. Though absence of work can be frustrating and isolating, you must allow sufficient time (usually 3-6 months) to recover fully from your operation. Deciding when to return to work should be determined by you, your doctor, surgeon, and ET nurse. You may tire more easily upon returning to work. If so, ask your employer if you can work part-time for the first few weeks back on the job.
ON THE JOB: you will need good toilet and washing facilities at your work site, with privacy available for changing your pouch. Keep spare wafers, pouches and accessory products—plus another set of clothing—at work, just in case. If using closed-end pouches, put the used pouch in a plastic re-sealable baggie before disposing of it. After draining an open-end pouch in the toilet, spray some air freshener.
JOB PERFORMANCE: People with ostomies perform nearly every kind of job. However, some occupations, in which work is physically uncomfortable or inconvenient, may require some precautions. If your occupation involves strenuous or repetitive physical work such as stooping, bending, or heavy lifting, be extra careful as you move about. If your work involves handling food, there is no reason why you cannot continue to do so, providing you exercise good personal hygiene. The risk of spreading germs is the same for those with ostomies as for those without.
WORK RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, some employers may be required to make certain accommodations for you. Inquire about this with your human resource specialist. Individuals, may, however, be required to undergo a pre-employment physical. Before accepting a position with a new employer, find out the name of their health insurance company and contact it directly to find out whether the plan covers your ostomy-related needs.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF?
By: Ellice Feiveson, Metro MD. Via: Dallas Ostomatic News
Trust me, every ostomate has had or will have an “ostomy accident.” By accident, I mean a pouch leak of some kind. The question is, “are you prepared in case an accident occurs away from home?” Not so much prepared as far as having a change of clothes and extra pouches, but prepared emotionally to deal with the unexpected mishap. The reality of it is that every ostomate must think of what he or she would do if at a party, in a restaurant, work or anywhere else, your pouch leaked because it wasn’t on securely, or the clasp came off and the contents were spilling out. The question is, “What do you do if you feel your pouch is not on securely or you feel wet around your pouch? First of all, you think that everyone is noticing you and knows what’s happening. Stay calm. Go to the nearest bathroom and take care of business. Most likely, your friends are continuing their conversation in the restaurant or in your workplace and no one knows you are temporarily missing. When I encountered an accident while I was in a group situation, I just removed myself and took my time in freshening up and rejoined my friends. No explanation is ever necessary! The more outings you take and the more public situations you are in, the more confident you will be as time goes on.

FOR COLOSTOMATES
 Via:Rose City Ostomy News
If you use a Stomahesive wafer and cut your own center hole, save the leftover pieces and use them to fill any skin indentions around the stoma underneath the wafer. Apply the pouch standing, lying or sitting down, but do not allow abdominal wrinkling or this will break the seal when you straighten out. Colostomy diet is fairly normal. You will discover which foods may not agree with you by trying everything, a little at a time, wait a few weeks and try it again. If it doesn’t work then, leave it alone for a few months, or forever if necessary. If you have difficulty with constipation, glasses of apple juice every morning and the night before irrigation may prove helpful. If you prefer, you might try taking your apple juice heated (add a little cinnamon.) Colostomates who take antihistamines during the sneezing season may find that certain drugs have a tendency to slow down intestinal action and the irrigation process becomes slower. Some report relief from the drug reaction by increasing the fluid intake the day they irrigate, or eating laxative foods (in moderation.) If you are irrigating and having problems with leakage between irrigations, try using less water. Too much water contributes to leakage. If you are a colostomate who uses a convex insert in your faceplate, and the insert becomes gunky or sticky, try good old Uni-solve to remove the gunk. It really works great!!! Especially in hot weather, wear protection between the pouch and your skin to prevent rash from perspiration. You can make a pouch cover with an old handkerchief, a baby’s bib, etc. Pouch covers can be purchased also. If you are taking a bismuth preparation, try to stop taking it for one day before having an intestinal x-ray or tell the doctor, because it sometimes shows up opaque on an x-ray.  

ODOR MANAGEMENT
Via: Greater Cincinnati Ostomy Association
Isn’t it interesting that people with normal intact bowel tracts and urinary systems manage odor problems in an acceptable manner in our society? But when disease or trauma strike, and the person is the owner of an ostomy, the one big concern is the fear of offending society with an odor. Basically, and simply, an ostomy is a man-made exit site that changes the point of exit from the bottom of our body to the front. Our eyes and nose are obviously on the front of our body, which leads us to be more aware of our changed body image and our odor-producing products. You've heard the statement “You’ve come a long way, baby.” Yes, ostomy management has come a long way—considering that as little as ten years ago we had very few 100 percent odor-free pouches. When ostomy surgery was first developed, ostomates wore anything to collect output. Tin cans, rubber gloves, cups of all sizes, bread wrappers, and plastic margarine cups, just to mention a few, were standard supplies for the ostomate. Not only the feasibility, but odor problems these types of supplies produced, was enough to give ostomy surgery and people with ostomies a deplorable place in our society. Presently, almost all ostomy supplies available to us today are made of odor-barrier materials. Therefore, if an ostomate does have a fecal or urinary odor about them, some detective work should be done: Check out the application of the pouch to the body—is it leaking? Check out the closure of the pouch—is it closed properly so that no fecal matter is oozing out after the closure is applied? Do not put holes in the pouch as gas will seep out continuously. A urostomate should rinse or wipe off the spout of the pouch with a bathroom tissue after emptying. Those few drops left in the spout after closing the pouch can cause a urine odor under clothing. It’s interesting to note that most urostomy pouches on the market are odor-proof, but the connector tubing and bedside and leg bags are not. You must dispose of and replace these products when they take on odors, or else your entire living quarters will smell. Emptying an ostomy pouch is comparable to a person with an intact bowel or urinary tract having a bowel movement or emptying their bladder. How does the non-ostomate handle the odor produced by this normal function of their body? Room deodorizing sprays are popular; a quick flush of the toilet when defecation occurs, and striking a match or opening a window are some acceptable methods that have been used for odor management since the invention of indoor plumbing. Why then are we ostomates so “up-tight” about the odor produced when our pouches are emptied? This complaint has encouraged ostomy supply manufacturers to create products to meet this need of “odor control.” The trouble is, the ostomy deodorants do not work for everyone and they are expensive. Can we then consider ourselves “as normal as blueberry pie” so far as waste odors are concerned? Just remember, there is not a man or woman on this earth whose wastes do not smell. If someone tell you their waste products are odorless, then a nose overhaul is in order

DON’T NEGLECT INTESTINAL BLOCKAGES
By Bob White, Editor of S. Brevard, FL Ostomy Assoc. Via: The Pouch, Northern VA.
My first article on the dangers of blockages in ileostomates was written in our newsletter’s first year, 1982. Since then, I have either written on the subject or reprinted other articles at least ten times. After the death of my beloved wife, Eleanor, in February 2006, as a result of complications arising from that pernicious condition, I resolved to call attention to it once more. Other things took my attention, but then, in the April 2006 issue of the Metro Halifax Ostomy Association newsletter, I read an article by Carol Ganje of the Greater Seattle Ostomy Association; it was a graphic description of her hospital experiences resulting from two intestinal blockage (IB) attacks. It awakened me once more. Like Carol, Eleanor suffered, in rapid succession, two such blockages. In the first, we went to the ER at 7:00PM one day, leaving it at 2:30 AM the succeeding day, supposedly cleared of the condition. Two days later, I sat at home watching Eleanor, who had seldom complained of discomfort, suffer excruciating pain which we both knew must be a recurrence of the blockage. When she finally consented to have me call 911 (it was a Friday—EVERYTHING medically bad happens on weekends), we were taken to the ER at Palm Bay Hospital where an excellent ER team took my Eleanor under their wing. The immediate symptoms were arrested, IVs and pain killers were administered, and Eleanor was eventually admitted to the ICU where she remained until, on February 20, she slipped away from us. Her entire system had been affected by the failure of her digestive organs, and she was unable to recover her strength. Carol survived her experience with IB—Eleanor, and others, did not. What can cause a blockage? A slowly closing stoma due to scar tissue, or, more often, injudicious choice of foods. It’s not the purpose of this article to discuss the causes of IB. It is rather to warn everyone that if the symptoms arise—the lack of flow, the griping, above all, the awful pain—FOR GOD’S SAKE, SEEK HELP WHEN IT BEGINS, NOT AFTER EIGHT OR TEN HOURS OF SUFFERING!!!! A great ER team may be able to save you then, but the odds against a successful result grow with every hour that goes by. If this seems alarmist, it’s intended to be. The loss of a loved one is a grievous blow. It’s much worse if, possibly, it could have been prevented with the recognition of a problem and the taking of immediate steps to deal with it. DON’T FOOL WITH INTESTINAL BLOCKAGE!

THE WINTER OF LIFE
Via: E-mail & The Regina Ostomy News
You know, time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years. It seems just yesterday that I was a young girl, just married and embarking on my new life with my husband. And yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went. I know that I lived them all… And I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams… But here it is...the winter of my life and it catches me by surprise...How did I get here so fast? Where did the years go and where did my babies go? And where did my youth go? I remember well...seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that winter was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like… But here it is...husband retired yesterday and he’s really getting gray...he moves slower and I see an older man now. He’s in much better shape than me...but, I see the great change… Not the one I married who was dark and young and strong...but, like me, his age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we’d be. Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day! And taking a nap is not a treat anymore...it’s mandatory! Cause if I don’t on my own free will...I just fall asleep where I sit! And so, now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things. But, at least, I know, that though the winter has come, and I’m not sure how long it will last...This I know, that when it’s over...I will enjoy the Spring in the arms of my loving Father...and wait for my loved ones to come when their winter is over too… So, if you’re not in your winter yet...let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life, please do it quickly! For remember that scripture...our life is but a vapor, it vanishes away...So, do what you can today, because you can never be sure whether this is your winter or not! You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life...So, live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember…

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