This picture was taken on the 8th of January...almost a month after the surgery. The stitches are still visible and you can't see the "hole" of the stoma.
This was taken at 6 weeks. There are some definite changes we've noticed with Adam's stoma. We can now see the hole, all the stitches are gone, and his skin seems to be healing in around the stoma.
It's been a heck of a time trying to figure out which wafers and bags to use so that his skin doesn't burn and so that there aren't any leaks. We've finally ended up with a convex wafer. His stoma is almost flush with his skin. It is just under 3/4 in. in size.
Adam takes 1 immodium in the morning and 1 at night. He has also been eating corn chips and avacado to try to slow things down a bit. He is still drinking lots of gatorade, but has also added in water. He has learned that if he goes more than 2 hours without eating he starts to not feel well. He also seems to get dehydrated really fast. He has still had some stomach discomfort and a lot of "butt" pain. He seems to do ok if he keeps lb prufen in him. He also went to the Dr. and got a B12 shot and his Testosterone shot. Of course he's anemic. He's taking some vitamins that will hopefully help too.
He still has no energy. He's going to start walking to hopefully build up some strength. He's getting tired of people telling him he needs to eat more. "oh really...is that all....we've haven't tried that!!!!" It's not like he can all of the sudden start gorging himself! Oh ya...and then there's the classic comment of, "oh ya, I've had IBS before...it's terrible!" "Ya...did you have constant cramping and diarhea for over 9 years?!!!!"
Anyway...We believe things are progressing how they are supposed to...just slower than we would like. We wish he were already running marathons and back-packing through Europe!
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