Looking after your abdominal muscles following stoma surgery

Hear from Sarah our Clinical Advisor

From A Bigger Life

Your abdominal muscles are really important to look after, especially in the first 6-8 weeks following your surgery. You’re advised not to lift anything heavier than a cup of tea and not to partake in any exercise, driving or anything that would put pressure onto your abdominal muscles.

The reason for this is to ensure your muscles have the opportunity to heal and come together, so they can protect all the muscles surrounding your stoma, with the hope it would prevent a parastomal hernia forming.

After your 6-8 weeks, you will want to get back to normal, everyday life and starting to think about resuming certain activities again. The advice for this would be to wear a support belt if you want to do anything strenuous. You don’t need anything strong or heavy, even if it’s just something like light support underwear. There are different options available with graduated strength within the support belts. It’s a good idea to talk about your needs with your stoma care nurse.

If you are doing anything strenuous like weightlifting, karate etc you will need a stronger belt to prevent a parastomal hernia.

You might be interested in:

• Protecting your stomach muscles following stoma surgery
• Hernia: Causes and treatment
• Is there a reason why people have different size stomas?
• Why your stoma may change in shape and size
• Understanding stoma problems