Physical Activities With A Stoma

Physical activities to some degree every day can help you fight a lot of health conditions. There is no restriction on what physical activity you should engage in. It is all up to your preferences whether you want to play golf and tennis or engage in other physical activities to keep your body energized. The good news is that you can continue with your preferred physical activity regimen with a stoma.

Under your healthcare provider’s supervision, you can return to sports or physical activities you used to enjoy before surgery. However, you may have to avoid any sports or workouts that might be detrimental to your stoma. Such high-risk sports are boxing, wrestling, heavy-lifting, and other contact sports.

Having a stoma doesn’t stop you from becoming a runner, swimmer, athlete, or skier, and that too on a competitive level. If you didn’t exercise before surgery, it is probably high time to start.

Now, we will discuss some tips to help you resume exercises and other physical activities.

• Start slowly after your doctor’s approval. Your abdominal muscles will need some time to recover from the impact of surgery. Keep in touch with your healthcare provider.
• Start with the physical activity of your choice. Perform it at least three times a week. Every session of this activity should be 30-60 minutes long.
• Make sure to empty your stomach before starting exercising. Your baseplate should be on for at least an hour before you begin to sweat.
• Make sure that your stoma pouch has adhered to your abdominal skin properly. Most modern ostomy pouches made today are water-resistant, which means you can keep wearing them while swimming.
• Before swimming, cover the deodorizing filter vent with a cover to prevent water from entering the ostomy pouch. You can remove this cover once your pouch is completely dry.
• If you want to relax in a sauna or a hot tub, secure your ostomy pouch barrier with water-resistant tape to protect the flange’s adhesive. You may also need to check the seal of the flange periodically.

Having a stoma might mean a lifetime commitment if your ostomy is permanent. You have to bring a change in your lifestyle to remain worry-free during your daily activities. The good thing is that it is not that hard to accomplish. Learning to live with a stoma is not a hard undertaking. All you have to do is to stay motivated and remain adherent to stoma care rules.

The best way to stay motivated is to keep in touch with your ostomy care nurse or healthcare professional. If possible, join an ostomy support group to listen to other people with stomas and share your concerns and experiences. That will help you learn a lot regarding how to live better with a stoma.

Most importantly, stay focused on living a healthy life. It includes eating healthy foods and remaining physically active. Take care of your stoma to prevent any complications; otherwise, you will have a stressful time. Be sure to discuss everything with your healthcare provider.

What Are Different Stoma Complications

The number of people with permanent or temporary stomas has hit the one million mark in the US. A stoma is a surgically created opening in the abdomen to allow fecal materials or urine to leave the body, bypassing the diseased section of the tract.

There is no sensory nerve in the stoma, meaning that you are not going to feel any pain in it. Yet complications can arise in it. A stoma will remain delicate as long as you have it, so you will need to follow necessary measures to ensure prevention against complications and infections that can arise in the stoma and the skin around it.

A healthy stoma is generally pink and moist. Immediately after surgery, the stoma will have swelling, which will subside in the next few weeks. Your nurse will teach you how to take care of your stoma and the skin around it. He or she will also tell you about the right pouching system that you may use.

In this article, we will discuss several stoma complications and the ways you can prevent those.

Parastomal hernia

This hernia occurs in the area around the stoma, usually in the peristomal skin. It happens due to the weakness of muscle tissues under the abdominal skin. The bowel or intestines push through the muscle tissues, forming a noticeable bulge in the peristomal skin area. It can surround the stoma from all sides, forming a circumferential hernia, or it might appear only in a particular area.

In many cases, the hernia is painful, and it might compromise the seal between the ostomy appliance’s skin barrier and the peristomal skin. In some cases, it may not cause any issue. Your doctor may recommend conservative therapy to treat the problem. An adjustment to the pouching system may also be beneficial.

You may want to use a hernia support belt to prevent parastomal hernia. Avoid using convex skin barriers if you have this hernia. If you irrigate your ostomy, you may want to discontinue it until you get rid of your hernia.

Trauma

Trauma in the stoma may occur due to an injury. Most typically, the cause of this trauma is a laceration. Lacerations can occur as a result of the use of clothes and appliances that interfere with the stoma. A too-small or misaligned opening in the flange can result in a laceration on the surface of the stoma.

Signs of trauma on the stoma include bleeding, stoma discoloration, and a visible cut. This complication resolves without any intervention, provided that you eliminate the root cause. For instance, you may need to be careful while creating an opening in the flange if the trauma is due to a wrongly configured skin barrier.

Stoma prolapse

The displacement of the stoma from its proper position can result in the stoma prolapse. It happens due to the intussusception of the proximal segment of the bowel, resulting in it sliding through the stoma’s orifice.

The most common reason for stoma prolapsing is the intra-abdominal pressure. A conservative approach to resolving this issue would be the healthcare provider’s priority. If that doesn’t work, the doctor may have to refer the case to the surgeon.