Like anything else, you get used to it. Don't be afraid to bother the ostomy nurse between appointments, that really helped me.

I'm about 8 weeks into my ileostomy adventure, it's temporary, will be reversed probably in February after I'm done with chemo. It was necessary because I had radiation before the surgery, it's to give my rectum/colon time to heal. #1 - I empty the bag beforehand, and I bought a wrap that goes aroun...

Thanks everyone. It was better today, I changed it again because I thought I hadn't gotten a good seal, but then it turned out I had, and there was no output while the bag was off this time, so it was a MUCH better experience. It still hurts though. Going to call the stoma nurse tomorrow to see if i...

I'm about 2 weeks out from a LAR with ileostomy, and I'm struggling a lot emotionally with the ileo. Next step for treatment is 6 months of just xeloda, so I'm looking at a reversal probably sometime in February, which I totally get isn't really that long, but like I said, emotionally I'm a mess. Ye...

So they're recommending 6 months of xeloda. I'm told it confers about a 2% reduction in recurrence rate in people with cancer like mine. The only side effect that really makes me nervous is the hand foot thing, one thing I read said to avoid tub baths (I was really hoping be able to use my hot tub a...

Thanks for checking back in, GreenTea. I had a rough couple of weeks and needed to take a break from the internet. I did ultimately decide to do the radiation. I read the MRI report, and had some really in depth conversations with the surgeon and the radiation oncologist, and the Friday before it wa...

Oh, boxhill, you've hit the nail on the head. I have been agonizing about this decision for the past two weeks, and every time I think I've come to terms with it something happens and I start second guessing again. My understanding is that the goal in my particular case is to reduce the chance of lo...

Thanks Green Tea. Do you know anything about the long term side effects of the short course compare to those of the long course? Something to ask the radiation oncologist I suppose. Honestly those are what I'm most worried about, I can deal with a lot if I know that it will eventually end. I don't k...

I am sorry you have to go through this. I am a stay at home mom of a 3yo and 10mo. I was diagnosed stage 3 rectal cancer. Read the thread on here about vaginal stenosis. Search for it - good info and these women helped me a lot. Get a good set of dialators or stay sexually active (obv post surgery ...

I had the full 28-day course of radiation and neo-adjuvant chemo before surgery and didn't have any permanent issues with the radiation but results may be all over the place on that. They will recommend drinking a lot of water before the radiation and that's definitely important as the water absorb...

THANK YOU for this thread. I'm due to start a short course of radiation next week, and while the radiation oncologist did bring up all of the possible long term effects he was pretty dismissive of my concern about them. I feel much more prepared after reading this, and that there's something that I ...

Hi everyone, I was hoping to introduce myself and get some feedback (or maybe just encouragement) about my situation. I'm a 38 year old stay at home mom of a 3 and 8 year old, my husband works 12 hour days, 5 days a week. I started noticing blood in my poo probably 6 months ago? Figured it wasn't se...