Nutrition Tips For Individuals With Ileostomy

Living with an ostomy might seem daunting for many new ostomates. However, it’s all about adapting to the change by learning about it and getting back to a normal and healthy life. A significant part of this adaptation process is related to nutrition. A healthy diet and an adequate physical activity can help individuals with ileostomies to not only remain physically healthy but also mentally stable.

That said, we are now going to mention a few nutrition tips that you should take into consideration if you have an ileostomy.

Eat more bananas

Not only the banana is a softer food, but it comes loaded with vitamins and minerals that are specifically helpful for people with ileostomies. The absence of your colon means potassium levels going down, as colon’s one of the main functions is to absorb moisture and any leftover minerals and nutrients from the stool. When the colon is gone, there will be no absorbing of valuable minerals, which also include potassium. Banana, being a potassium-rich fruit, may help you maintain potassium at the required levels.

Peppermint tea bags

Gas is one of the biggest concerns for people with an ileostomy. It can result in pouch ballooning and, sometimes, leakage, which can turn out to be uncomfortable and embarrassing. The best way to prevent excessive gas is to use peppermint tea or oil. Peppermint tea can help boost your overall health, as it improves digestion and reduces inflammation.

Avoid excessive food intake

Instead of having bigger meals fewer times a day, you can consider eating small portions. This can be especially helpful if you have an ileostomy. Eating small but several meals a day can boost your metabolism, helping you avoid most of the ostomy-related issues.

Drink plenty of water

With an ileostomy, the body excretes a lot of fluids, which might end up in dehydration. Therefore, it is essential to increase water intake to compensate for the loss of fluids that rush out of the stoma. You are going to have to drink at least eight to ten glasses a day. If you travel a lot, it is a good idea to keep a bottle filled with water with you all the time.

Consider having salty foods

While normal people do not get a recommendation of doing so, you might have to increase the amount of salt in the foods you eat if you have an ileostomy. That will help you compensate for the sodium loss that tends to happen with every stool evacuation.

Chew the foods properly

The primary job of the GI tract is to absorb every nutrient from the foods you eat. But with a large portion of GI tract gone after ileostomy surgery, you are going to have to make sure that your body still absorbs most of the nutrients that enter into it. For this purpose, you are going to have to chew your foods well.

Tips for Traveling With Ostomy

After an ostomy surgery for a few days, you might not feel like being eligible to consider traveling. But that’s only until you get a realization that you can live a normal life from every aspect by being prepared. An ostomy surely brings a change in life. By keeping in mind the fact that an ostomy is not a problem but solution to the problem, it will become quite easier for you to understand that the change an ostomy tends to bring in your life doesn’t have to be an obstruction. It’s all about seeing at the brighter side.

Now, you may wonder if you can plan certain things, like traveling, with an ostomy. An ostomy needs to be managed carefuly and, so, you might think about abandoning the idea of traveling wherever you want to go. Well, that is going to be a bad idea. With effective planning, you can go wherever you want to go without having your ostomy being a major concern.

Here are a few things that you can do to be fully prepared and comfortable while traveling.

Luggage weight limits

You may have to travel with a lot of supplies related to the ostomy management. And those supplies may contribute to your luggage exceeding beyond the normal weight limits. The first thing that you are going to have to do is to check if your airline allows you to carry a bit extra luggage than the limits set by majority of other airlines. You can also seek information about whether or not you can use your medical information to get clearance to carry extra supplies.

Forbidden items

You will need to see which items you can put in the luggage. Normally, you will not be allowed to travel with ether, methylated spirits, or flammable aerosol adhesives and removers because these items are considered hazardous due to their ability to catch fire. You will also not be allowed to keep scissors in your hand-carry luggage.

Pre-boarding security checks

Your luggage will be checked at the security baggage checks before boarding. Since you are going to have to keep your medicines with you, you need to get a medical card, which will explain the reason why you are carrying medications in that much amount. This card is particularly helpful when you have to carry certain medications which are normally not allowed to be in the luggage.

Car traveling

Car traveling is not going to be as complicated as air travel because you will have the freedom of traveling with as many supplies as you need. While you can take care of your ostomy from many other aspects, you need to make sure that the seat belt is not crossing over the pouch and stoma.

Common Problems That Can Occur With an Ostomy and Their Solutions

You should be able to live a normal life once your stoma has settled. Although there are going to be a few ostomy related issues you may have to live with but that shouldn’t be a big concern. Over time, you will consider your ostomy as hardly something problematic given that how committed you are with your resolve to live a normal and healthy life.

But things do not remain ideal the entire time. Ostomy issues can happen more likely than you expect while you are adjusting to a life with stoma. These issues can act like obstructions in your way to be mentally and physically fit. However, the good news is that there are some solutions that you can consider in order to get rid of those issues and prevent them from happening in future.

It may be worth mentioning here that majority of problems that tend to happen with your ostomy have something or everything to do with how carefully you apply the pouching system and how well you take care of the hygiene of stoma and skin around it. Any issue in the digestive or urinary tract can lead to certain complications in the management of ostomy pouching system but you can still prevent those issues from becoming the ostomy problems if you are good with the ostomy management.

Having that said, it may be worth talking about the common ostomy problems and their solutions.

Leakage

Leakage occurs when the stomal output seeps under the barrier and finds a way out rather than falling into the bag. A lot depends on how well you have prepared the part of your skin that has to be covered under the skin barrier. As a best practice, you have to clean and dry your skin before applying the pouching system. You can use an absorbing powder, also known as stomal powder, if you are unable dry the skin.

Skin problems

The skin around your stoma is called peristomal skin. This part of the skin should be as healthy and smooth as the rest of your skin. Irritation or redness in this part of the skin can cause several problems related to ostomy pouching management. A lot depends on how clean and dry the skin is around your stoma before you attach a pouching system. You might have a concern about the adhesive residue removing which turns out to be the tough ask. The best thing you can do to counter this issue is to use an adhesive remover.

Odor

The sound and odor emanating from your pouch can cause real embarrassment and frustration in you. As a precautionary measure and good healthy practice, you need to watch your diet. To ensure proper prevention of odor, you can use pouching system with filter. The best thing about a pouch with filter is the pouch is not going to inflate like a balloon.

Financial planner with an ostomy bag

I have been a numbers person my entire life.  When in school, I thrived on the ability to “crunch” numbers and put them into formulas, and create all kinds of answers.  I became a natural progression for me to choose a career that not only involved my love of numbers but also finances.  I have a master’s degree in business, and after college, I landed a job with a very prestigious financial planning firm.  Life was going really well until I suffered a car accident six months ago.

I was traveling north towards Manchester, IN, for an appointment.  I had approached the bridge with extreme caution since the roads were a bit slick due to the wintery conditions that had been sweeping through the Midwest.  It happened so quick that I didn’t have a lot of time to react.  I hit a patch of ice that spun my car into the guardrail just at the very end of the bridge.  Thankfully I remained on the road and did not go down the hillside.  Fifteen feet sooner, and it would have been so much worse.  I suffered internal injuries and a tear in my colon.  

When I woke up in the hospital, I was very confused.  Things were foggy, I had a fever, and I couldn’t stop shivering and itching.  Thankfully the doctors were able to figure out that I was having some kind of reaction to one of the meds that they had given me.  I was not aware of any allergies to medicine, but thankfully now we know.  It did seem to take, what seemed like forever to get something else on board, but once I had that changed and my system was clear of the other medicine, I was able to relax and take in my new reality.   The surgery to repair my colon went as well as expected.  I did have to have a stoma and colostomy bag put into place to help my systems to function properly.  As I laid in the hospital bed, I remember thinking about the statistical outcomes of this procedure in regards to life expectancy, infection possibilities, and the finances needed to cover all the things.

Thankfully with the type of job that I have, I have been able to take some time off for healing, but also able to work from home when needed.  What an amazing blessing that was.  The care and the maintenance needed were overwhelming at first.  What products to have on hand, what was needed if I was out in public.  What suppliers were the best to purchase the ostomy bags from, and the list could go on and on.  The nurses and medical staff that I have become very familiar with have literally made this transition amazing.  

I have learned thus far in life that things happen that we are not always prepared for.  Sometimes these are life threatening, life altering, and lifesaving.  My colostomy bag is not convenient, but how amazing is it that I have the ability to work from home if I needed to due to complications or just any overall concerns related to my newest condition.  I would encourage anyone who is experiencing similar medical procedures of any kind to know the facts and to gather all the information that is available so that with that knowledge, you will be able to better facilitate your healing, and your life will not be greatly affected.  

Did 2020 teach us to Stock up on Stoma Gear in 2021?

It is 2021 and the times are not any better.  The lies about COVID-19 are out and it turns out we destroyed our economy for pretty much the flu. But still many people have been jobless or have been forced to work from home this year.  The economic change has been huge and the way we do business and even travel has changed. It hurts to see this truth. This really hits home when you have a stoma and rely on ostomy supplies to live and be happy because there is something more than normal goods that you need to survive.  You see with all the changes in the economy and politics riots and violence along with the shutdowns all contributed to some supply chain issues in the delivery of medical supplies.  Most of it didn’t make the news and that is what still blows my mind. Because of this, I want to go over more of how to be prepared for when or if this happens again.  Bad things happen all the time and being prepared is wise.

Now we all know the propaganda of all the news channels is real in the United States.  They are mostly just lies created to keep us fighting and to increase marketing money.   I don’t believe the news very often due to the bias on all channels, but I do believe what I see and for some people in major cities, this could be a big problem if round two of COVID-19 shutdowns start again. So rather it is a medical emergency for those who rely on ostomy supplies and their local pharmacy and big box stores get burned down and trucks stop delivering it is important to be ready.  It is true, many delivery trucks to two major cities refused to drive in due to the rioting and looting of the trucks.  Police were told not to interfere and those truck drivers valued their lives more than their job.  Did it make the news, not really, but those who needed the supplies felt it. We know when things happen that they can happen again and that is why I think it is wise to be prepared. 

We may be increasing our own domestic supply of medical goods, but is that enough?  But what if next month you get stuck without being able to get online deliveries or being able to go to a local shop and pick up your needed ostomy bags?  It is psychologically important for me to be ready for the worst logical case.  I didn’t see anyone have more than a two-month shortage.  I, therefore, think that having two months of extra supplies on hand is a wise choice.  This is a lot of supplies and can be expensive.  Just make sure you have enough ostomy gear on hand.

Don’t go out and buy everything at once.   If we all do it, then we all will suffer because supply will actually run out.  But if we all slowly add a few extra days to our orders then we will be able to build a study supply of extras that we may or may not ever need. In my own mind, it helps me to know that if an emergency situation happens I know that I will be able to live happily and safely.