Question:
what is a large stoma?

I am hearing people talk about a defectively large stoma after surgery? What is this? How can I keep it from happening to me?    — Holly R. (posted on May 25, 2003)

May 25, 2003
A large stoma allows food to go into your intestines and this allows you to eat closer to regular size meals. I have always been able to eat and drink much more than they said I would from the beginning. I wish I knew about th fobi ring pre-surgery and could go back and choose a DR. who inserts them. Most Dr's will not insert them post surgery. My Dr's answer is keep to seven bites a meal and I'll lose the weight. My response is that was true pre-surgery and $40,000 surgery too.
   — Candace F.

May 26, 2003
The stoma is where the intestines are attached to the pouch. For reasons no one seems to know, in some people, the stoma, or opening, is too large, and allows food to pass directly into the intestines. Because of this, the pouch doesn't get full on small quantities of food, and allows the person to eat pre-surgry quantities of food. There is no way to predict who this is going to happen to, and nothing you can do personally to prevent it. A Fobi-ring can be used during surgery, but they present their own problems, and most surgeons won't use them. Surgery to correct a large stoma has a very low sucess rate, and most surgeons will not agree to perform it. My surgeon's response to me was to "diet and exercise", something I heard a gazillion times pre-surgery. If that alone worked, I never would have agreed to the surgery in the first place. I now have an ulcer, and part of me is hoping the medication isn't curing it, so they have to go in surgically to fix it. I'm going to beg and plead with my surgeon to try to fix the stoma also at the same time.
   — Cyndie K.