Question:
How big should the opening out of the new pouch be ?

Is it possible that if its too big food is going to the intestines and they are becoming a stomach ?/    — SONIA D. (posted on October 28, 2003)

October 28, 2003
Yes it does. Just as if you were a 'cancer' patient and had your stomach removed. The intestines will 'take over' and act as a stomach and you will have ALOT of eating room. THere is a 'standard' for the stoma.. i forgot the exact measuremeants 9 to 14 or something like that (would have to re-reseach. When a surgeon makes the stoma; he expects it to shrink a bit after surgery. ALOT of people, get stricture (where it shrinks to much) and prevents eating/drinking and has to be fixed. A few will not shrink, and you have this problem, and NO food limiations, cause your pouch is being bypassed and the surgeon generally doesnt fix it. :( the third way your stoma could be bigger is if they 'overstreach' doing the dilation. I guess it could be possible the surgeon could make it to big to start with...
   — star .

October 28, 2003
My doctor told me I have an enlarged stoma. He based it by me discribing how much I can eat at one sitting, not by scope. He said that my pouch hadn't stretched, but that because my stoma had enlarged I was still eating while food was flowing through the stoma into my intestines, and that's why I could eat so much. He didn't actually say my intestines had become a second stomach but you can look at it this way. I don't think it has made a new pouch that holds food in the intestine if that's what you're thinking. If the stoma is small then it holds food in the pouch and you get a full feeling. If food flows through fast enough it takes a lot more food to feel full. I believe I'm quoting my surgeon accurately, but you might want to discuss this with your surgeon. Maybe you can talk your doctor into a scope and get a definitive answer to if you have an enlarged your stoma and just how enlarged it is. Good luck. S
   — sherry hedgecock

October 28, 2003
I could be mixed up about this but I think my Doctor told me that my stoma was about the size of my pinky finger or a nostral. He used this as a way of telling me about what the consistancy of my food should be and how I should chew,chew,chew, to allow the food to get thru this little opening.
   — bloom

October 28, 2003
10-12mm. Dime, nickel--in that vicinity. There's a lil device that makes the stoma for most. Some docs still do it by hand, but the lil device is way cute. Amazing the stuff they come up with. I'm reaching around in the fuzz that is my brain and thining 12mm is ideal. 15mm is too big. 9mm is pretty uncomfy. But even if they use the gizmo, there is no guarantee that any two particular stomas will remain identical. Every body is a lil different.
   — vitalady