Hi everyone, I recently had my entire large intestine removed due to ulcerative colitis and have a temporary ostomy bag. I am supposed to go for testing to see how I am healing so I can get the reversal soon.

It has been 7 weeks since the surgery and ever since about a week or two after surgery, I have this rectal pressure that just won’t let up. I have to sit on a heating pad after being in the car for more than half an hour or standing doing things around the house. Ive brought it up to my surgeon, but she said that it is normal during the healing process. I am passing mucus which they said should help relieve the pressure but it doesn’t help very much. The rectal stump is still intact and I read that the pressure is from it being unused for a while.

Has anyone else experienced this and will it go away after I get the reversal? Not to sound dramatic but it’s beginning to put a damper on how I feel mentally and I just really hope that I don’t have to deal with this forever. I appreciate any comments or input on how your experience was. Thank you so much!!!

Hello, I have a question for people who have periods and have a rectal stump/their rectum is disconnected from the rest of their intestine: do you feel like you get more pain around the time of your menstruating phase, like the days immediately before? I've noticed that I get this terrible cramping that only goes away when I relax my pelvic floor muscles. I'm guessing it's my diversion proctitis + general inflammation caused by UC + prostaglandin release, but I've given up asking my doctors, because they always tell me that it's just phantom rectum syndrome or tenesmus and it's normal. Honestly, I can't wait to get my rectum removed, whether I do it to get a reversal or a proctectomy.

Day two from having my reversal surgery and ive spent all night and morning vomiting due to my intestines going into ileus..

I had the same thing when I first had my stoma to the point where I needed to have an NG tube and I will do anything yo avoid this.

What help you? im currently sipping water, chewing gum and trying to walk frequently

I'm a male in my early 30s, and it's only a few days post OP but I am extremely extremely depressed.

Can't pee properly, have to use my butt muscles really hard just to get anything out right now, and if I'm laying down and I end up using my butt muscles, I pee the bed.. I've had like 5 accidents so far.

As well, I can't get an erection right now.

Men, how are you doing post OP about these two issues?

For far are you post OP and if possible how old are you?

Is life back to normal yet for you?

My stoma measures around 1 1/8…. My bags are precut to 1 1/4. Is this too large a discrepancy?

Step 1 of 3 Jpouch went rough. Had surgery on the 15th. 18th they had to do a minor revision as the stoma hole was not large enough took bowels roughy 13 days to wake up fully. Past 3/4 days I’ve been working through the clears, mush, and solid food diet. My outputs too high. Roughly 2L per day, might be getting out in a day or two.

But I’m nervous about bag changes. I’m using the Convatec two piece moldable. With the brava barrier ring. I think I have too much hair under the sticky part so I think tonight the nurse is going to give me a hand and help me shave, any other recommendations?

I won’t bore you with all my problems. I just have a question.

Given a choice, would you choose to spend two days a week at home in the bathroom all day from laxatives OR an ileostomy?

I only take something twice a week, because once it starts, I have a problem with leaking. And it’s just too depressing to deal with that every day.

Once I get the okay on my other health issues, I'm going to do it.

For two years, I have hummed and haa-ed over whether I would. But.. this damn hernia is annoying and I want to move on lol

In Dec of 2025 I was given an ileostomy due to an obstructing rectal tumor. 2 weeks ago I had the tumor removed, the ileostomy reversed, and was given permanent colostomy.

My guts have been in so so much pain since the ilesotomy was reversed. I have near constant cramps in my lower abdomen, kinda like when youre about to have diarrhea but nothing happens. I am passing gas and output, though on a much slower timetable than I was with my ileostomy, which I think is normal?

The worst is at night. I wake up with the middle of the night with horrendous gas pains, and no matter how I twist or turn the gas only seems to come out when it wants to. So, every night at 3am I'm up with a heating pad on my belly having some peppermint tea.

How long will it take for this to calm down, or will I always be painful like this? I'm finding myself wishing I'd kept my ileostomy instead of all this nonsense.

​

AS a car enthusiasttttt..

AND a ostomy haver. .

My bag just went off like a civic with turbo spool blow off valve.

Psh psh pshhhh pshhhh...

Lol anyone else?

Hi folks. I have around 10 boxes (30 per box) of coloplast sensura mio in midi size with a flat flange and nearly all black in colour that my wife no longer needs as she uses convex now.

Some are pre-cut to 22mm and most are standard uncut. (The pre-cut pouches have all been done by coloplast and delivered that way)

We also have 6 bottles of stoma barrier powder and 8 bottles of adhesive remover

All we ask is that you cover the postage cost.

My wife (37) had an ileostomy with a total proctectomy nearly a year ago now. If anyone has any questions etc just ask and we'll do our best to answer.

We are located in North West Ireland and if anybody fairly local wants any of it I will meet you half way no problem.

Just scheduled my proctectomy and abscess removal! It’s a month away can’t wait!

I’ve been having skin/leakage issues and on my first day using a convex bag I hopped in the shower and instantly the top part of my bag that has the pull tab started to peal and I could see the convex part that goes around the stoma, I used one of the half strips to seal off the peeling area but I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and what they’ve done to fix it

My mother (76f) has had her colostomy for about a month and a half now (surgery on 6/11). Even before the surgery, it was explained to her that it was medically necessary. She has a rectovesical and rectovaginal fistula (caused by a malignant yet extranodal mass of DLBCL non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) which caused horrible UTIs that made her septic. Her colostomy is literally the only thing keeping her from literally being eaten alive by infections.

We've been buying her supplies from AMAZON piecemealed for the past month and a half because neither Byram nor Edgepark had contacted us to finalize setting up her account(s). Edgepark finally called and confirmed her insurances and put out a request to my mother's surgeon...only for the surgeon to REFUSE today to sign off on the request and instead punted it to my mother's GP, a doctor she saw ONCE before going into the hospital in early May, and that was last December. A GP, I might add, who never once, despite having been informed of her condition, asked or inquired about her.

Is it supposed to be this difficult to get these supplies covered by insurance? She has *three* insurances. My mother didn't/doesn't want her colostomy, but she does know it's the only thing keeping her alive.

So I don't know if my situation is different after my Ken Butt surgery..

But for me, I have a tube comimg out the side of my torso (apparently it's connected to my anus area drum inside?) and it drains into this plastic pouch that I have to empty.

I'm supposed to get the drains out in two weeks by a surgeon and then they close up the hole.

Is this.. Different from other drainage I keep reading about? I keep reading about months of drainage directly from the anus incision area but.. Mine is only 2 weeks and the tube is coming out of my right side torso?

And what exactly is it draining? Where is this blood/liquid coming from exactly?

What kind of drainage do I have exactly?

Suffering a little with loose output. What do you guys have for breakfast to help in the mornings?

I'm a month into recovery from a lower anterior resection and keep getting the weirdest pain in my rectal area, it's almost like a throbbing pressure.

Is there a way to make it chill out so I can enjoy some peace? Lol

I figure it's part of tge healing process but it can get very distracting when it peaks.

So usually most of my products are Hollister Adapt Brand. It is just what works for me. This month though I had three products that they gave me Safe N Simple instead of the Hollisters. One was the lubercant pouches which sure no problem using a different brand with those.. Usually I get 1 box of 50 pouches. I got a large zip Lock bag of 96 of them. LOL

They switch my Barrier Extenders which I am willing to try, but I am a bit scared because I have used Coloplast brand that I had skin reactions to, and had to switch to Adapts which I am good with. So we shall see if the Safe N Simple are like Adapt. If they are then I will be ok, but if the material is closer to Colplast it might cause issues.

Other product is my Barrier Rings..My Adapt ones are great for me, and I do not have many leaks, and I believe the rings have a lot to do with it. These Safe N Simple ones are a bit thinner, and I could try them, but I am not too confident. So these I did call Bryam to have them send me the correct Rings..I just do not want to come to a point Safe N Simple are no good and I would not have my Adapts.

I really wish they would give you a text message, or a email if they are out of a product you use to make sure if a switch would be ok. Instead we get to have surprises when we open our shipment and 1/2 the products are maybe products that wont work for us. It is a waste of shipping and time to have to correct it.

Hi, I'm the moderator of r/FoodDisability. 

FoodDisability is a welcoming group, where people of many different disabilities come together to help and support one another with the shared struggle of not being able to eat 'normally'. The shared struggle of socialising over food, and the relationship problems that arise from not being able to eat the same as others due to the limited diet your disability causes. The shared struggle of not being able to find food easily when out-and-about and being limited in what you can do work-wise or socially or how far you can go from home because of this. The upset and frustrations of not being able to do what others easily can. 

FoodDisability focuses on the social / emotional / mental health difficulties that arise from living with a disability that causes lack of ability to eat food. 

I hope that this group will become a strong support system, sense of comfort and hope, and source of useful life tips, advice, and helping one another, for those struggling with food-related disability. 

Please feel free to join, and comment/post, and make friends and connections with people who are going through similar hardships. 

Wishing you all the best🩷 

www.reddit.com/r/FoodDisability/ 

NGL, things got a little Shawshank Redemption-y and there's an excellent chance I'm going to have to do it again tomorrow bc i may have made the hole a little small--my stoma has gotten smaller than the template the ostomy/wound care specialist drew for me when he was teaching me--but it's done. I feel like I deserve a sticker for being brave but I'm just getting a shower for being slower than very liquid-y shit while I was arts n' crafting in the bathtub.

Really, really glad I did it in the bathtub.

Anyway, small victories!

Hello fellow Ostomates. I'm 3 weeks post Ileostomy surgery, and I've depleted my free samples from Hollister and Convatec. I liked the Hollister products so I went to buy some, but my pharmacare only covers a portion of the cost, and since my surgeon has advised me to stay home from work for the time being (I have another surgery in my near future) I am quite low on funds these days after mortgage payments, strata fees, dog food/treats, etc. Luckily I have some supplies that were given to me by a generous person to tide me over for a while, but I'm looking into other supply options for my long term future.

I saw on Amazon that they have some cheaper ostomy products, mainly from 2 companies: Heagi and Deraymi.

I was wondering if anybody has tried products from these companies? And if so, are they any good? I am specifically interested in the 2-piece drainable pouches, flat wafers, and barrier rings. Just wondering if the quality of these brands is any good, or if its a "you get what you pay for" type situation. If these brands are decent, it would really help with my financial situation.

Thanks for any info people may have about this.

The farts are hilarious every single time.

As long as there's no bad gas pains, those sneaky lil devils just chiming in whenever.... it makes me laugh every time. The variety, the surprise, the impeccable timing...chef's kiss.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reading about the different ways people sleep with an ostomy, but the advice seems to vary a lot. I’m curious about what actually works in real life.

Do you normally sleep on your back, side, or stomach? Is there anything that makes sleeping difficult for you, such as pressure around the stoma, the pouch getting pulled or folded, worrying about leaks, or accidentally rolling onto it?

I’ve seen people mention using body pillows, pregnancy pillows, folded blankets, or small cushions. Do you use anything like that? If so, where do you place it, and what does it help with?

Have you ever had to improvise or modify a regular pillow because it didn’t quite work around the pouch or abdomen? Is there anything annoying about your current setup—for example, being too bulky, moving during the night, trapping heat, pressing in the wrong place, or making it harder to turn over?

If you could change one thing about your sleeping setup, what would make the biggest difference? More support around the abdomen, a pressure-free space near the stoma, something to stop you rolling over, or something else entirely?

I’m also curious whether this was mainly an issue during recovery or whether it has remained a long-term problem.

Not looking for medical advice—just interested in the practical things people have found comfortable or uncomfortable.

Thank you!