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Knowing the difference between a colostomy and an ileostomy is important because that’s how you can follow correct measures to care for your ostomy. Both these types of ostomies may look similar due to the appearance of their stomas, but they are quite different.
If you have a colostomy, it means you retain a segment of your colon. An ileostomy, on the other hand, bypasses the entire colon. With an ileostomy, you get a stoma on your small intestine or ileum.
A stoma is the end of the bowel that the doctor brings to the surface of the abdomen. It is an opening that passes out the stool.
There can be many reasons you may need a stoma. The top reasons include Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, both of which are the forms of inflammatory bowel disease. Another reason you might need a stoma is bowel cancer.
With an ileostomy, the stoma you have is the small bowel’s end, which the surgeon has brought out through the abdominal wall.
When it comes to managing an ostomy, some people wonder why they would need to choose a specific type of ostomy bag for a particular kind of ostomy. A bag is a bag after all, so what’s the big deal?
Remember, each type of ostomy passes out a different form of waste. The colostomy alone has four different subtypes with each subtype resulting in the stool excretion of a different consistency. The stool evacuated by an ileostomy is more liquid.
Patients must equip themselves with the right information about the type of ostomy they are going to get, and also about what the surgical process entails. Unfortunately, not many people know the true difference between an ileostomy and a colostomy before undergoing the surgical process. As a result, they feel alone and scared, struggling to find the right information that they may find applicable.
Learning the difference between an ileostomy and a colostomy is the simplest thing that can save a person from bigger confusion and complications.
The reason we emphasize the importance of knowing this difference is that each type of ostomy requires a patient to follow an entirely different set of ostomy care measures. For instance, most colostomies result in the evacuation of more formed stool, which is hard to manage if you are using a drainable pouch. On the other hand, an ileostomy typically results in the evacuation of liquid stool, which passes out of the stoma more frequently. Using a closed-end ostomy appliance will result in the pouch filling up quickly, leading the patient to change more pouches.
Similarly, the skincare measures for an ileostomy are going to have to be more drastic, since the stool passing out of the stoma will be filled with more corrosive elements that can cause skin complications in no time. The skincare measures for a colostomy will have to be quite different.
That said, it is crucial for a person who is about to undergo an ostomy surgery to consult with the doctor or ostomy care nurse to get accurate information on the subject. Internet may help, but only when the first-hand fundamental information is correct.
How To Manage Gas in Your Pouch After Receiving an Ostomy
An ostomy is quite literally a lifesaving operation. It's performed due to a wide variety of underlying issues. This can range all the way from a birth defect to cancer. However, this wide variety of origin points all lead to a single result - an ostomy. And an ostomy typically brings along a common set of issues. Getting used to both the ostomy and its resulting pouch is a learning experience. As with most big changes in life it just takes a little work to learn how to deal with some new events. Gas is probably one of the single biggest examples of this learning process.
We've all experienced the inconvenience of gas after a big meal. Not to mention the toll something like beans would take on most of us even before the ostomy. It's important to remember that an ostomy isn't a complete replacement for the digestive system. Most of the issues we'd experience before will still occur. It's simply that having an ostomy pouch will change how our body deals with those issues. Gas is just something that will always occur when we eat food with certain properties.
We typically had coping mechanisms before the ostomy. And we can learn new ones after receiving a pouch. It's important to keep in mind that an ostomy isn't going to force us into a lifestyle where we can't enjoy food anymore. Nobody without an ostomy would stop eating beans because it gave them gas one time. Likewise, we shouldn't let an ostomy scare us away from tasty food and meals with loved ones. All we need to do is observe how gas builds up in our pouch and find ways to deal with it.
The first thing to keep in mind is that gas doesn't always come from food. The air we breathe is also a gas. And we're constantly taking air into our body. Our throat can take air into our lungs where it belongs. But it can also accidentally divert air into our stomach. This will eventually make its way out to our ostomy pouch. This mainly occurs when we try to combine breathing and eating. For example, when we chew gum our bodies often get a little confused. The same goes for smoking. Even talking during a meal can result in air coming in along with our food. The main way to prevent this is to simply make a point of not talking and chewing at the same time.
Gas can also arise from the same foods which challenged our gastrointestinal system before the ostomy. Of course beans are one of the most well known examples. And we'd deal with that problem in a similar way to how we would before the ostomy. We just need to take any preparations that would help. For example, some medications can help us digest beans without creating gas. Other times we can simply incorporate those foods into our diet on a regular basis to help our microbiome adapt.
We can also work with our pouch to remove built-up gas. Some pouches incorporate a charcoal filter system that allows gas to escape. The charcoal removes any potentially noticeable odor when this occurs. However, these aren't applicable for all types of stoma. Vents are a one-size-fits-all solution that consists of a disposable valve and nipple system which attaches to a pouch. When needed the valve can be quickly opened and closed to release gas.
People with a two-piece system can simulate that effect by "burping" it. We simply need to separate the pouch from the flange in order to let trapped gas escape. Afterward it can be reattached.
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