Question:
What is a stoma?

People have said that they can stretch out their stoma? What exactly is a stoma and how can it be stretched?    — okbuffy (posted on May 18, 2009)

May 18, 2009
The stoma is the small opening between your pouch and your stomach.
   — karrenn

May 18, 2009
Stoma is a generic term meaning opening. With RNY it is the opening from your pouch into the small intestine. The pre-op stomach has the pylorus which is a muscular, and therefore adjustable, ring that regulates flow out of the stomach. People who have lap band and vertical sleeve still have their pylorus which is why the incidence of dumping is so low with these surgeries. If they eat too much sugar the pylorus keeps it from going into the small bowel too fast and they avoid the "dump" of insulin that can result from sugar getting into the small intestine too fast. In RNY the stoma is built by the surgeon when they attach the pouch to the small intestine. Some people have larger stoma's than others to begin with. Almost everyone's stomas will enlarge over time but eating too large meals or carbonated beverages may stretch the pouch and enlarge the stoma. The ROSE procedure is a endoscope (through the mouth) procedure to make the stoma smaller which slows the exit of food from the pouch restoring more restriction to eating too much at one time. Sorry I'm so wordy but you got me into teacher mode. :) Kevin
   — hapkidodoc

May 18, 2009
Kevin, I appreciate your wealth of knowledge on many of our topics. I do my own research, but as I am recovering this site is so VERY helpful. Seems like so much energy is taken and I have so many unanswered questions. THANK YOU, THANK EACH AND EVERY MEMBER
   — nana2one

May 18, 2009
Kevin, I appreciate your wealth of knowledge on many of our topics. I do my own research, but as I am recovering this site is so VERY helpful. Seems like so much energy is taken and I have so many unanswered questions. THANK YOU, THANK EACH AND EVERY MEMBER on this web site!!!!!!
   — nana2one

May 19, 2009
I agree with you, Deb. Kevin Flowers and Anite R are so very generous with their knowledge. I really didn't know what was going on with the stoma until Kevin explained it.
   — Muggs

May 19, 2009
The stoma can close up or have scarring after sugery. This is a stricture. To take care of this they gentle stretch to stoma with a ballon like device. It is painless and helps fix the problem very quickly. I have had this done twice so far. I got to where I could only eat liquids, everything else was too large to pass through. If it getts too stretched then you need revision to make it tight again. It is all about balance.
   — trible