WHAT: is a stoma/ileostomy

A stoma is an opening, made by a surgeon, to bring part of the bowel to the outside of the body. There are three common types:
  • An ileostomy brings the small bowel out of the abdomen, usually diverting the large bowel because of disease, in some cases the large bowel is completely removed. Common causes for this surgery are Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis.
  • A colostomy  brings part of the large bowel out of the abdomen, usually diverting some of the large bowel. Common causes for this surgery are cancer in the large bowel or rectum.
  • A urostomy uses a small part of the bowel as a tube to bring urine from the kidneys to the abdomen. A common cause for this is bladder cancer.
In all three cases the bowel is covered by some type of bag that is glued to the outside of the abdomen to collect the "output" as it is so nicely described, this avoids calling it what it really is: poo (for the first two) or wee for a urostomy. The bags need to be emptied and changed. There is a lot more information at http://www.stomawise.co.uk/

I have an ileostomy.

Many people find the thought of a stoma disgusting, I can still remember a "eugh moment" when my own mother had to have a temporary colostomy a number of years before I fell ill and had surgery, so I know how you may feel reading this. But for me this is just my kind of normal. 

We live in a society that does not like to talk about these kind of things and it is this lack of talking that causes a number of problems:
  • people do not talk about their bowel habits which sometimes leads people to not getting diagnosed with cancer early enough to be treated
  • it can make people with a stoma feel highly uncomfortable, I have met some people that feel that they cannot return to work or even find it difficult leaving the house because of their stomas.
So let's start talking about these kind of things and learn to get over it. That is one of the reasons I have created this site: to get some of my friends and family talking about this (if it spreads a bit further to help more people get talking about these issues, well that would be nice).

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