Not all stomas look the same- not all scars are the same-not all stories are the same.

WARNING PHOTOS OF SCARS, STOMAS, AND WOUNDS

 

I decided to ask my lovely stoma people if anyone would be willing to show their stomas or reversal/ surgery scars on a blog page, so that I could show that no two stomas are the same and that not all scars are the same either. Many people who have had this type of surgery worry that something is wrong when they see a picture of a stoma, and theirs is not the same.

I felt the same when I was shown a booklet the day before surgery that showed a cute little rosebud stoma on a perfectly clear tummy. This was one of the images.

In reality it is nothing like this. There may be a few lucky people with one similar but I have yet to meet one. The nearest I have come across and I might say, very jealous of, is this one…

How neat is that? unfortunately for this lovely lady, she eventually had to have a different kind of stoma, a loop ileostomy which is a “Demon” she said. Her scar healed well.

This lady had an original ileostomy that was very sore as it dipped into the skin, but had a new one placed which is much better. One that dips or is flush with the skin can cause major skin irritation and is very difficult to treat.

This selection was from someone who had a bowel resection in the beginning, theses are the scars, then a stoma. Her scar healed really well.

This following image is of a stoma, but also a fistula where they were not able to close the incision. This person will be having surgery in April to close the fistula and have a reversal , so no more stoma.

The following selection is from a woman’s first stoma which was a loop ileostomy. When this was taken down it was by the drawstring method and then the resulting scar which I think is very neat. The patient then had a j pouch but eventually that failed, so she had a new ileostomy which was very recessed and eventually was taken down again and the j pouch revised.

A stoma now, that has a scar next to it from repeated peristomal abscess / ulcer. It just goes to show that not all scars are the same.

Again a wound that is dressed, caused by an abscess due to hidradentis supparativa ( I had never heard of it either, its an auto immune disease that causes abscesses mainly on and under the breasts, under arm and groin ). With scar running down the middle from ileo surgery.

When they did the barbie butt surgery with this next patient they opened up the original abdomen scar.

The following few pictures are of an end ileostomy and a scar from a mucus fistula on the right . ( where the end of the rectum that has been kept and bought through the abdomen so that the mucus can be collected into a smaller pouch whilst it heals.) The rectum still produces mucus fluids even though it isn’t connected to anything.

A Crohns patient had a temporary ileostomy formed and a loop colostomy made permanent. this a scar that is only three weeks old.

All these lovely people were happy to help me raise awareness of all things stoma, and are very brave with their stories. For most of them, this has been a difficult time with many hurdles, but they have all come through in the end.

Thank you to each one of you who were kind enough to share their surgeries with us.