Getting home after stoma surgery
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Preparation for Discharge Hear from Sarah our Clinical Advisor
From A Bigger Life
To help you prepare for getting home from hospital after stoma surgery we have created a list of hints and tips to ensure you are well prepared.
The simple things
The first thing is to ensure you are competent and confident at changing and emptying your pouch. It’s important that you can look after yourself like having a shower, putting your clothes on and taking them off, putting your shoes and socks on etc. Simple things that might be a little tricky after having abdominal surgery.
Walking up and down the stairs
It’s important to ensure that you can up and down the stairs if you have stairs at home. Ensure that either one of the nurses or one of the physiotherapists has actually taken you for a walk and taken you to a set of stairs to practise going up and down them. You might be a little bit weary or it can cause you some pain in your abdominal muscle if you haven’t practised them before you go home.
Stoma Nurse Contact Details
Make sure you have the contact details for your stoma care nurse before you leave the hospital and also other things like the name of the pouch you’re going home with, have you decided how you’re going to get your supplies? Either from your local pharmacy or from a delivery service?
Protocol
Understand what the protocol is for coming back to see your stoma care nurse, would you be referred on to someone in the community? Or do you go back to the hospital for your routine review appointments? Ensure you have all these things written down so whenever you get home you’ll be able to look back and refresh your memory.
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